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House Bill 2878 and House Joint Resolution 23 both include provisions that would expand the scope of public-private infrastructure partnerships, in effect ceding a portion of control over planning and development to private entities, opponents said. The infrastructure most immediately in question is I-55, specifically a plan to expand the highway by adding express toll lanes that would be managed by a private party.
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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So Springfield politicians haven’t learned from Chicago’s BIG MISTAKE?
Folks, it’s possible to have a state without a single toll road. Just drive to Michigan. It really can be done.
Widen I-55 for who…?
Who will be going into this dying city…?
Oh yeah for the criminals, so they can make a quick getaway…
Investing in this city is a losing proposition…
The tollway bypass will be just another avenue for Illinois’ politicians to put their friends and family on the payroll, like the Illinois Tollway Authority, RTA, Metra, CTA,…
Tolling may make sense — but not the kind of flexible “dynamic” rate tolling that was authorized by crooked corrupt Virginia Democrats some years ago, which produced insane rush hour toll charges of $40 to go 10 miles
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/12/07/states-governments-increasingly-turn-tolls-manage-highway-traffic-jams/930900001/
Then don’t take the tollway at rush hour. Dynamic pricing is a way to discover the true value of a good or service at the time it is consumed. This type of pricing is widely used throughout the economy and should be used more often.
Most non-remote workers don’t have the luxury of adjusting their work schedule — this is pure predatory pricing for commuters who have no other options.
This is not like a typical consumer scenario where a price hike by one brand lets the consumer pick another. This arrangement is an abusive state sanctioned monopoly.
Commuters have plenty of other options to get to work if they don’t want to pay the congestion pricing on this portion of I66. If they choose to drive by themselves, those options will be longer and slower, but that’s the choice they’ll have to make. We make these types of decisions everyday in our economic life. This choice is no different.
A tollway is not a good or service – it’s public infrastructure. IL currently has it’s own but slightly different version of this right now: The Kennedy Closure.
Residents are avoiding the Kennedy, not because of the tolls, but because of insane congestion, but it’s the same result: fewer cars on the Kennedy during rush hour.
All its done is push the Kennedy traffic onto side streets, with Caldwell, Elston, Ridge, Lincoln & Milwaukee being more crowded than ever before. People will just take alternate routes instead of paying the $40 toll.
I believe most economists would disagree with you and say that roads are a good, a public good. In our dicussion of congestion pricing on I66 the discussion moves to certain types of roads either being private goods or acting like private goods. Private goods have exclusivity and rationing through pricing and this is exactly what a toll road does.
All our other roads that we travel are considered public goods because everyone has equal access and there is no exclusivity or rationing of the use of that road.
Is Infrastructure a Public Good? No, Sort Of, and What Role for the Public and Private Sectors
https://www.ifsd.ca/en/blog/last-page-blog/infrastructure-public-good
Economists make Astrologists look reasonable!
Nobody makes astrolgists look reasonable except maybe “professioal wrestlers”.
The quote I was paraphrasing is:
“The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.” – John Kenneth Galbraith.