Headlines

1. Can New York hit the jackpot by selling its lottery?
2. Debate on privatizing the Michigan lottery is revived
3. Transportation secretary backs toll roads
4. US drivers to see major toll hikes
5. Municipal toll roads become likely path
6. Editorial: NC toll roads
7. Penn. turnpike fare increases will be regulated
8. Bill would kill NH toll-bridge project
9. Stephenson’s privatizing

1. Can New York hit the jackpot by selling its lottery?
In essence, a private company, or more likely, a consortium, would be trying to make the state’s lottery system more profitable over the next several decades by taking over management from state bureaucrats. To entice the state to go along, the private investors would have to pay a lump sum large enough to be worth the state’s trouble. Governors across the country have been tempted by the potential, but there has been criticism of proposals to use lump-sum payments to erase short-term budget gaps, according to an article in The New York Times.

2. Debate on privatizing the Michigan lottery is revived
The controversial idea of privatizing the Lottery to save the state and school districts money has been revived, reports the South Bend Tribune. The House Speaker said he wants to use proceeds from the sale or lease of the Lottery to help pay the rising cost of retired teachers’ health plans and ease the burden of health insurance on the state and local school districts.

3. Transportation secretary backs toll roads
With a busy road as a backdrop, U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters pledged support for toll projects in Tennessee and elsewhere in the country, while delivering a rebuke to supporters of higher gas taxes, reports The Tennessean. Peters also said she came to Tennessee because of support here for public-private toll roads and bridges. Last year, the legislature voted to allow the state to initially build one toll bridge and one toll road; the legislation prohibits tolls from being added to existing roads. "I believe very strongly that what Gov. Bredesen and the state legislature here have done are paving the way to the future, literally, in terms of passing important legislation that allows them to take advantage of private-sector investment in transportation."

4. US drivers to see major toll hikes
USA TODAY reports that the nation’s toll booths are getting dramatically more expensive to drive through.The sharp increases come as states endure financially lean times triggered by the housing and credit crunch and struggle to find money to maintain or replace vital infrastructure. Big toll hikes are planned for most of the nation’s signature toll roads, bridges and tunnels. The increases would add dollars, not cents, to the cost of passing through many toll booths.

5. Municipal toll roads become likely path
Though the Oklahoma Supreme Court last week put an end to a proposed toll bridge joining Jenks and Tulsa, Oklahoma residents should expect to see additional – and perhaps more carefully crafted – municipal toll road proposals in the future, according to The Journal Record.

6. Editorial: NC toll roads
The Winston-Salem Journal criticizes state toll road agency for asking lawmakers for permission to raise toll fees."Lawmakers have rushed headlong into the toll-road idea to avoid a gas-tax increase and still build some of the new roads we need. It means that people who use these two toll roads will pay gas taxes to support all of the state’s transportation needs and then pay a toll to meet their own need to get home from work."

7. Penn. turnpike fare increases will be regulated
Private companies offering bids to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike must agree to limit fare increases, Gov. Ed Rendell said last week. There’s no need for alarm about future fares, Rendell said at a news conference, reports the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. "The toll increases must track what the Turnpike Commission will impose" under Act 44, the state’s highway funding law, Rendell said. The commission has proposed a 25 percent toll increase next year, followed by increases linked to inflation thereafter. "Putting ceilings on toll hikes eliminates the unfounded fears being fomented by the Turnpike Commission and its lobbyists in defense of the patronage playground," said Matthew Brouillette, president of the Commonwealth Foundation, a think tank that favors privatization. Roy Kienitz, deputy chief of staff for Rendell, said the governor plans to solicit bids and to present the best proposal this spring to the Legislature.

8. Bill would kill NH toll-bridge project
New Hampshire lawmakers last week considered a bill that would kill the controversial proposal to build a roadway and toll bridge through a Nashua neighborhood, but still allow the state to seek private financing to fund other public works projects, reports the Nashua Telegraph. After an organized group of residents bombarded lawmakers with letters and e-mails stating their opposition to the plan, the sponsors of the bill agreed to amend the legislation to specifically prohibit ever building a bridge and roadway through that neighborhood.“Yes, we’re relieved that we’re not going to have a bridge go through our neighborhood,” Smith said. “But we went through hell over a six week period.”

9. Stephenson’s privatizing
A letter-to-the-editor appears in the Salt Lake Tribune concerning State Sen. Howard Stephenson’s proposed Bill 45, ‘Accounting for Competitive Activities of Local Entities’. "This bill could force city, county or state-owned golf courses, recreation/fitness centers, swimming pools – anything that competes with private businesses – to lose public funding, close and be sold to private businesses, if a private business feels it competes with them. This bill would take away reasonably priced recreational activities from the general public. Once privatized, many ordinary citizens, seniors, singles and families who now pay for these activities at affordable prices, could not afford private-sector golf, swimming or fitness centers. If golf courses are privatized and then fail to turn a profit, they would be sold for development and would be gone forever. We would lose beautiful, green and open space. What comes next? Will the library system close because it competes with bookstores? What about recreation programs that keep our youth occupied with softball, baseball and swimming? This is a bill that tries to fix something that isn’t broken."