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Thom Tillis to constituents: It’s my way or no highway

Tom SullivanOPINION

N.C. House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, wants fewer taxes and more user fees in North Carolina. If Tarheels wind up paying more out of pocket in fees than taxes, well, freedom.

The NC Department of Transportation project to widen I-26 here in Buncombe County may not be shovel-ready, but in his Mecklenburg County district Tillis supports widening I-77 from Charlotte to Mooresville. With toll lanes.

“Lexus lanes,” opponents call them. Other critics call I-77 “Thom’s Tholl Road.”

Residents along the crowded interstate stretching north from Charlotte long anticipated seeing the highway finally widened. Except where citizens expected general-purpose lanes to relieve their daily commutes, Tillis backs a public-private partnership (P3) featuring High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes instead.

Oh, there will be new lanes all right, but to use them drivers will pay tolls to a foreign developer. What Raleigh saves today, Tillis’ neighbors will pay out of pocket for the next 50 years. Or else spend more time in traffic and less with their families or sleeping.

WidenI77.org, a citizens’ group led by small-businessman Kurt Nass of Cornelius, writes, “Tillis not only favors I-77 toll lanes, but is willing to go to the mat to make sure we’re stuck with them.”

Tillis told opponents that with state revenues shrinking (because of tax cuts?) they had a choice: toll lanes “or no improvements to I-77 for 15 or 20 years.” It’s Thom’s way or no highway.

Mooresville state Rep. Robert Brawley, R-Iredell, and Republican Iredell County Commissioners oppose Lexus lanes. Over Tillis’ objections last year, HOT lane opponents amended the Republican Party state platform to read, “We oppose any plans for, or legislation in favor of, High Occupancy Toll (HOT) Lanes.”

Tillis would have none of it. The NCGOP rewrote its platform in June to remove any reference to tolls.

The NCDOT then signed papers with Spain-based Cintra Infraestructures. Cintra will fund the bulk of the $655 million expansion (including over $150 million for tolling equipment and overhead, says WidenI77.org). Cintra keeps all revenues. Should revenue projections fall short, Naas warns, North Carolina taxpayers will cover its losses up to an additional $75 million.

Cintra opened a new toll road in San Antonio in November 2012. Revenues there fell far short of projections. By June 2014, Cintra was struggling even as it signed agreements with the NCDOT. In July, Moodys declared the project in default. U.S. taxpayers are on the hook to bond holders for any bailout.

Thom Tillis is running for U.S. Senate hoping to unseat incumbent Democrat, Sen. Kay Hagan. So HOT lane opponents wondered why he’d support toll roads over objections from his party, local Republican lawmakers, and Mecklenburg constituents – even the conservative Civitas Institute.

WidenI77 suggests it’s because of Cintra Infraestructures’ connection to an industry lobbying network named ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. (Cintra’s membership reportedly lapsed last year.)

Tillis received a Legislator of the Year award from ALEC in 2011. Like Tillis, ALEC also hates taxes and promotes user fees and privatization. It’s as if Match.com put these two crazy kids together.

ALEC politicians file its model legislation in state capitals each year, sometimes word-for-word.

Public assets you, your parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents paid for in taxes and sweat to make America a world power in the 20th century, ALEC wants sold off in the 21st. To its members, of course.

“Limited government” is their code for stripping America for parts.

"Entire industries, from rail to water, ports and airports, roads and healthcare – industries that are meant to serve a vital public purpose and have received decades and decades worth of public investment – are now being sold off at car boot-sale prices to private international corporations and investment funds,” explains Don Quijones, a freelance writer based in Spain, home to Cintra Infraestructures.

Tillis expects to fund highway projects all across North Carolina using tolls. WSOC-Charlotte reported this summer that a round trip from Mooresville to Charlotte on Tillis’ I-77 HOT lanes could cost commuters $20 every weekday.

The Raleigh News and Observer reports that Tillis sits on the board of the American Legislative Exchange Council along with Rep. Tim Moffitt, R-Buncombe. Moffitt is the former co-chair of the state’s House Select Committee on Public-Private Partnerships.

Given the chance, who knows? Maybe Moffitt will turn I-26 into Tim’s Toll Road.

Tom Sullivan is a consulting engineer who blogs at Scrutiny Hooligans. He has contributed to Huffington Post, Crooks and Liars, and Hullabaloo. He is first vice chair of the Buncombe County Democratic Party.