Privatize the profits, subsidize the losses.
In addition, it looks like TXDoT is ready to go all in on the public-private financing scheme:
In its first meeting after a legislative session in which requests for transportation funding fell billions of dollars short of requests, the Texas Transportation Commission voted Thursday to open the door to allowing private firms to take on a larger role in some road projects.
“We’re trying to stretch our resources as far as possible,” TxDOT Executive Director Phil Wilson said.
The five commissioners voted unanimously to consider amending the agency’s rules to allow for a new kind of public-private partnership for the agency in which TxDOT would share financial risk with private entities on a project and even agree to reimburse them from the state highway fund if needed to ensure they make a profit. TxDOT will accept public comments on the rule change until July 15. Afterward, the commission will consider adopting the proposal.
Currently, toll projects in Texas range from privately developed ones like State Highway 130 south of Austin, where a private entity takes on all the financial risk, to the DFW Connector Project in North Texas, where public entities are on the hook. Wilson described this latest proposal as allowing for projects that fall in between those two extremes.
“This would be more of a blended model,” Wilson said.
http://eyeonwilliamson.org/?p=12900
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