XPost: in.general, sac.politics, alt.politics.usa.republican   
   XPost: alt.politics.economics   
   From: screw@obama.com   
      
   For once, it may be taxpayers who get away with highway robbery.   
      
   Less than a decade after a foreign consortium paid Indiana $3.8   
   billion for the 75-year rights to collect tolls along the   
   Hoosier State's 157-mile Indiana Toll Road, the private firm is   
   bankrupt and looking to unload the contract. But the deal,   
   signed under the administration of former Gov. Mitch Daniels,   
   who once headed the federal Office of Management and Budget, is   
   being praised for protecting Indiana from exposure, unlike other   
   privatization pacts that stung taxpayers.   
      
   “The state is protected,” Leonard Gilroy, director of government   
   reform at the nonprofit research institution Reason Foundation,   
   told FoxNews.com. “And they get to keep all the money they   
   earned in the deal. They have invested already somewhere towards   
   90 different highway projects throughout the state.”   
      
   “The investors were looking to make a splash.”   
   - Leonard Gilroy, Reason Foundation   
      
   Known as the Major Moves Plan, the deal with a group comprised   
   of Spain-based infrastructure firm Cintra and Macquarie Bank in   
   Australia, was announced with fanfare in 2006 by Daniels.   
   Operating as the ITR Concession Company, the private firm would   
   collect maintain the road and collect tolls until 2081 for the   
   billion-dollar upfront payment. The state would invest the funds   
   in an interest-bearing account and use the proceeds to fund road   
   nearly 100 projects elsewhere in the state. It was the classic   
   deal that so often prompts politicians to pronounce it a "win-   
   win."   
      
   Except it now it is clear ITRCC lost.   
      
   “The investors were looking to make a splash,” Gilroy, who has   
   followed the deal closely, told FoxNews.com. “This was an   
   aggressive deal. They bid high to make an impact. To kick start   
   interest in the U.S.   
      
   “You probably won’t see a lot of similar blockbuster   
   transactions in the future,” he added.   
      
   Toll revenues, which were supposed to be used to pay back   
   lenders who gave ITRCC money to sign the deal, didn't meet   
   projections. Last year alone, the ITRCC took in $196 million in   
   tolls and owed $193 million in debt service, leaving a scant $3   
   million to cover salaries for nearly 250 employees, maintenance,   
   upgrades and other expenses.   
      
   Late last month, the company submitted its filing in federal   
   bankruptcy court, acknowledging that it missed a June $102   
   million interest payment.   
      
   Current Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who, like Daniels, is a   
   Republican, said drivers and taxpayers don't need to worry about   
   the toll operator's problems.   
      
   “Hoosiers can expect business as usual on the Indiana Toll   
   Road,” Pence said.   
      
   For now, three possible outcomes await: Either someone else will   
   step in and buy - for perhaps pennies on the dollar -  the   
   rights to collect tolls for the next seven decades, the ITRCC   
   will renegotiate its deals with lenders or the toll road's   
   operation will revert to the state.   
      
   “The deal was designed to protect the state of Indiana,” Michael   
   LaFaive, director of fiscal policy for Michigan-based Mackinac   
   Center for Public Policy said to FoxNews.com. “If they go belly   
   up, the state could get it back if it’s not sold to another   
   group. The worst case scenario would be that creditors would get   
   control.”   
      
   According to the National Bridge Inventory, a database compiled   
   by the Federal Highway Administration lists about 2,200   
   privately-owned highways across 41 states and the commonwealth   
   of Puerto Rico.   
      
   Cintra also runs operations for a swath of State Highway 130 in   
   Texas as well as the Chicago Skyway, but those deals are not   
   affected by the Indiana bankruptcy. But Maquarie Bank has been   
   burned before in bids to run private toll roads in the U.S.,   
   according to a 2007 report. Two of the bank's major projects,   
   including the South Bay Expressway in San Diego, went bankrupt   
   and another two were bought back at discounts by local   
   government jurisdictions.   
      
   http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/10/05/failed-toll-road-   
   privatization-leaves-indiana-in-driver-seat/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)