Quote:
Originally Posted by MSinger
Actually no infrastructure has been sold. The Indiana Toll Road is on a 75 year lease for $3.8 billion. The State of Indiana is currently collecting $543,243 PER DAY on the interest alone. This money is being funneled back into the highways all across the state. The toll road has been improved and for the first time tolls can be collected electronically through the EZ Pass system. The company that leases the toll road is also giving the state $5 million to build a new state police post along the road as well as an additional $6 million for additional troopers to patrol the highway.
This arrangement is not unique just to Indiana. The City of Chicago formed the first lease of an existing tollway with a private company who also has foreign ties. The Chicago Skyway was leased out for $1.83 dollars for a 99 year lease in January 2005. Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are also interested in forming such leases on their toll roads.
As for other accomplishments, Indiana has landed several new large scale businesses in the past few years including Honda (Greensburg), WellPoint (Boone Co), Getrag (Tipton), Nestle (Anderson), and Advance Auto distribution center (Remington).
I don't agree with everything the guy has done but one thing's for sure, he did what he said he was going to do in the campaign. That holds alot of water these days.
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Do you think you will be alive 75 years from now? I doubt I will. No man on either side of my family has ever made it to 75. So what happens in case of an emergency and our military needs that road and the foreign entity that is "leasing" it doesn't want to let them use it? Do our troops then have to fight to use a road in the US? Plus doesn't Mitch want to build a toll road from Indy to Evansville then lease it out as soon as it is finished? Seems there are better ways to attract business. When I was last on the Toll Road before it was privatized all the people who worked in the plazas and things didn't seem to happy. Seems like they were worried about losing their jobs.