HOT Lanes "won't cost Virginia taxpayers a dime"

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Originally posted by ybarra

And just how were you "sold out" since we still get to ride for free? And we get an extra lane and some of us would like to see the lanes extended further south. What am I missing here?

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No, we DON'T ride for free, we'll either be paying cash upfront to ride in the HOT lanes, or if "too many" people slug/carpool, we'll have to pay out extra tax dollars to Transurban.

Duh.

You may be right about Ybarra

Here's Ybarra's bio from the Reason.org website (interesting to note that Reason is not neutral nor is it non-biased but is a pro-highway privatization org):

"Shirley Ybarra is a senior transportation policy analyst at Reason Foundation, a nonprofit think tank advancing free minds and free markets.

Ms. Ybarra served as Secretary of Transportation for the Commonwealth of Virginia from 1998 to 2002, overseeing a budget of $3.2 billion and a staff of 13,000 people. Between 1994 and 1998, Ybarra was Virginia's Deputy Secretary of Transportation.

Ybarra also served as senior policy advisor and special assistant for policy for U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole from 1983 to 1987. In that role, Ybarra managed the transfer and privatization of Dulles and National Airports to the Washington Metropolitan Airport Authority.

Ybarra authored Virginia's Public-Private Transportation Act of 1995, considered the model public-private partnership legislation in the United States.

In 2001, Ybarra received the American Road and Transportation Builders Association's "Public-Private Ventures Entrepreneur of the Year Award" for her leadership in designing innovative infrastructure financing."

I wonder how much of Ybarra's current (and past) payroll is made up of contributions by highway contractors!? Funny, but as an ingnorant taxpayer I would think that someone in the role of VA Secretary of Transportation should represent the PEOPLE of Virginia. Instead she seems to curry to foriegn contractors bent on overturning laws like the National Interstate Highway Act, enacted by former President Eisenhower to provide free transportation to the American public. Hmmm, provide freedoms to the American public! Now that's a novel idea!

quote:

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Originally posted by ybarra

Oh, and by the way, with today's economic climate revenues NOT streaming in, I doubt VDOT will be able to afford to bring the lanes further south. They need a private partner to do it.

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Hey ybarra, what rock did you crawl out from under? I won't waste everyone's time rehashing why this is literal Highway Robbery, you can go back and read the dozens of posts that discuss this in detail. I won't re-discuss how our a portion of property taxes are already earmarked for transportation (but VDOT has is not able to balance their books), and how the contract with Flour/Transurban literally guarantees they will make a profit at the taxpayers expense if need be, or how there is no guarantee that HOVs will continue to ride for free, or how the whole contract was awarded without public scrutiny or debate. I also won't re-make the argument that these short-term VODT budget fixes do not provide for budget shortfalls as highway maintenance costs rise in future years.

However, it merits mentioning that your lack of knowledge about this has always been the goal of VDOT in this project and is exact reason it will happen. This is a behind-closed-doors deal designed to make the current VDOT administration look good at taxpayer expense.

Welcome to the daylight ybarra! Soylent green is people!

And just how were you "sold out" since we still get to ride for free? And we get an extra lane and some of us would like to see the lanes extended further south. What am I missing here?

Adding/maintaining the toll/HOV lanes won't cost taxpayers a dime??? Each toll collected from SOVs, part of money is going to go towards the construction/maitenance of the toll/HOV lanes. I knew VDOT was delusional about this plan, but now I think they're totally deranged.