Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Another Reason to Distrust the MWAA Hand-off

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by

James A. Bacon
in

The Kaine administration wants to put the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority in charge of running the $4 billion Metrorail-to-Dulles heavy rail project — one of the largest public works projects in Virginia history — but the authority asserts that it is completely exempt from federal and state information disclosure laws.

The MWAA claims that its status as an “interstate compact” puts it outside the scope of the Freedom of Information Act, reports Examiner.com.

Let’s add it all up.

(1) The MWAA has institutional interests distinct from those of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
(2) The MWAA is governed by a board, the majority of whose representatives come from Maryland and Washington, D.C.
(3) Under the Kaine plan, the MWAA will set the toll rates along the Dulles Toll Road, affecting tens of thousands of Virginia commuters.
(4) Under the Kaine plan, the MWAA will control who gets the design and build contracts for the heavy rail line.
(5) And now we find that the MWAA deems itself exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.

Stewart Schwartz sums up the situation nicely: “It simply reinforces our contention that the Airports Authority is too unaccountable to be given responsibility over the toll road, its revenues and the Dulles rail project.”

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14 responses to “Another Reason to Distrust the MWAA Hand-off”

  1. Reid Greenmun Avatar
    Reid Greenmun

    Yupper – just MORE all-appointed, unaccountabel “regional” government (in this case, the ‘region’ is crossng state boundaries).

    Does anyone else see a pattern here???

    Tolls are taxes.

    This is another step down the road to taxation without representation – ‘representation’ that “We, The People” ahve any say or control over.

    The path leads us to government of the people, by the special interests shills appointed to serve on unaccountabel, closed door “authorities”.

    I wonder when people will actually wake up and realize what is going on here?

  2. Groveton Avatar
    Groveton

    Wow!

    Put the MWAA in charge of anything?

    Hell no.

    I fly a bit more that 300,000 miles a year. I have been to every major US airport many times and most airports in Europe and Asia as well.

    Dulles is the worst run airport in the United States. Only Miami comes close in the race for incompetence. And Dulles still has a big lead.

    In fact, other than Bangalore India, I’d say that Dulles is the worst run airport in the world. And the people in Bangalore are close to opening the new airport they have been building for (too many) years.

    If the MWAA finds itself with spare time – perhaps they should visit Dulles airport and see their handiwork in action.

    Dulles is so bad that it’s the constant source of ridicule by people from Europe and Asia who are forced to fly through it. There are not anti-Americans, they are anti-incompetents.

    Give the MWAA more authority? No way!

  3. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    This is much more important than just the MWAA.

    This is about WHO can own, operate, administer Toll Roads in Virginia using what criteria and safeguards.

    This WILL Destroy any public confidence and trust in TOlling and set in motion serious citizen opposition.

    I cannot believe how DUMB the folks are who let this happen without thinking of the wider consequences downstream.

    Now a cyncial person would say this is the PREFECT issue for the Republicans to Demonstrate that a major part of our transportation problems are NOT money but simple transparency and accountability…

    let’s see if anyone steps forward to call this what it is…and who just sort of hums along with it.

  4. Groveton Avatar
    Groveton

    Larry – Since you opened the discussion on toll roads…

    I was recently in London and made it a point to investigate the congestion charge as it has been instituted in London. Here’s what I heard:

    1. The congestion toll was implemented by the Mayor of London a few years back. It was ostensibly to reduce congestion in London. From personal experience, I can say that the congestion in London had grown to horrific levels. In addition, the City of London, in many cases, has narrow streets that could only be widened by knocking down a lot of buildings or tunneling underneath the city.

    2. The toll was originally set for 5 pounds per day. Any vehicle (except those covered by exemption) that drove in the heart of London had to pay the toll. Recently, the toll was raised to 8 pounds per day. The overall sense of the Londoners with whom I spoke is that this was done entirely to raise taxes and had nothing to do with congestion or transportation.

    3. Enforcement is achieved through license plate photography. There are obvious camera banks along roads in the designeted areas whcih take photos of all vehicles on those roads. If you drive into one of the toll areas you are obligated to log on to a web site and pay the toll electronically. You have to make this payment by 10 PM on the day you drove in the designated area. If you do not do this – the charge will grow very rapidly and you will pay a lot more than 8 pounds. You can elect to pay in advance – in which case you get a discount which gets bigger the farther in advance you pay.

    4. The area of the congestion toll zone is being expanded to include more of the City of London. The residents and businesses in those areas are very upset by this expansion. However, since the Mayor of London is expanding in small “chunks” he is not losing much political power by expanding into new neighborhoods – one at a time.

    5. People driving through London on a number of main arteries are exempt from the congestion toll. You have to stay on the main artery without stopping in the congestion area but you can use these roads without paying the congestion toll.

    6. There are many, many exemptions. Taxis, limos, many commercial vehicles are exempted.

    7. The overall sense is that this was a good idea that has now been abused by the politicains. There is widespread belief that this congestion tolling has become another method of taxation disconnected from transportation.

    8. There were many unintended consequences. For example, some of the money raised from the congestion toll was, in fact, spent on more bus capacity. In may cases the original buses were replaced with larger “articulated” buses. The government thought that this would add capacity without having to add more bus drivers – just bigger buses. In many cases these buses were too long to negotiate London’s tight corners during rush hours. Consequently, many got “stuck” and others had to be idled as the bus system went back to the old buses.

    I guess the bottom line is that the congestion toll was implemented for the best of reasons. However, it have been coopted by the politicians as just another method of taxation.

    How could this be prevented in the US?

  5. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    First off, JW can correct me but Loudon is used what is known as a “cordon” toll I believe.

    By the way NYC is considering the same thing.

    The cordon toll is designed to not charge on a per use per rush hour basis but more like a daily fee for entering the cordon area.

    But my concern with the MWAA deal extends to any/all TOLLing arrangements because without specific regs … about what the revenue will be used for – there is a huge loophole.

    EVERYONE is looking/lusting after this potential money – BOTH SIDES. The folks that want more transit AND the folks that want more roads AND the folks who just flat want more money for whatever….

    But I would not confuse potential abuses with toll proceeds with the merits of congestion pricing.

    Existing examples include the transportation trust fund (which I’m not an avid supporter of) but the point is that any fund can be “raided” if insufficient protections are not in place.

    Cordon Tolls are to hammers as congestion pricing is to surgical knifes.

    I’m not saying Cordon tolls are wrong necessarily.

    If what you want to do is to reduce the amount of traffic coming into a central city… certainly.. you can keep raising the price higher and higer until you get the desired effect.

    You could also accomplish the same thing by draconian parking fees…

    Congestion pricing… can and does vary by time and location and it’s goal is to keep congestion to reasonable levels to maintain reasonable travel times.

    Congestion pricing will actually free up capacity on an existing road because once congestion reaches a certain point – the road actually carries less than it’s design allowed for.

    but again.. any collection of reveues without specifics about it’s use is a recipe for trouble.

    Even developers have concerns about Proffers being collected – and then not used for the reasons given for their collection inthe first place.

  6. Groveton Avatar
    Groveton

    London, as it was explained to me in London, is a “cordon toll”. They could make it congestion pricing by turning off the cameras when there was less traffic. Or charging more if you drove in the toll area at different times of the day.

    Singapore has more of what I think you have in mind. Various “gantries (sp?) are set up throughout the city. Your car has a reader that detects when you drive through a gantry. Depending on time of day, etc. you get charged different amounts (sometimes none at all).

    What mechanism would create a lasting ability to match toll receipts with a specific, intended use?

    Politicians are living proof that it’s possible to be simultaneously stupid and sly. They have no ideas at all about long term fixes to the congestion problem. They wouldn’t know a settlement pattern from a dress pattern. But give them a way to raise more money through tolls? Hell, they’ll promise the moon. All money to be used in the region it was collected, all money to be used for transportation, etc. etc. Then, slowly, things will change. Money will be used out of region, it will be used for education or for the state police or for basically anything.

    In fact, I’ll tell you how this tolling idea will really happen. Neither the state nor the regions will run the tollways. They will lease existing roads to cororations and well heeled investors (private equity funds and the like). These entities will run the tollways. They will man the toll boths, collect the money and provide the transaction processing. And they will make the donations to the politicians at re-election time. They will make sure that politicians who lose or decide to retire from politics have great jobs waiting for them (as a sign to the remaining politicians). And they will set the rules to maximize their profits – not minimize congestion.

    That’s the real future – not some idyllic world where those that use are those that pay with all funds going to improve transportation.

    Remember the Virginia driving point system debate? I do. Bad driving points would be assigned for dangerous driving. We had to get the bad drivers off the road. The points would only be used to remove dangerous drivers. Now you can get points for anything – driving in an HOV lane, parking in certain no parking zones, littering. The original intent is forgotten, the original promises discarded.

    Don’t trust politicians.

    Don’t give them any additional power.

  7. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    well I did a little checking and indeed the London deal is characterized as congestion pricing.

    but it’s different because it works off a boundary whereas other schemes set tolls on particular roads or even a network of roads so in that case you could have roads inside of a boundary that were tolled or not.. or different tolls at different hours – potentially.

    I personally favor having the private sector handle the tolls on a contractual basis that specifies performance criteria and a concession fee.

    But let’s back up to whether or not one believes there is a need for more money for transportation – first – then what follows if it is agreed that more money is needed.

    I tend to think that more money IS needed but not for the same reasons that others might think.

    What I favor money for is system preservation, safety and optimization of existing infrastructure including our many deficient bridges FIRST and I don’t think we have enough money right now for doing that.

    I don’t buy the 100 billion dollar backlog – or at least I will not until I see a ranked and prioritized list using objective needs-based criteria.

    More money for more roads on a generalized basis with specific budgets and CIPs is essentially a slush fund .. ripe for misuse and squandering… in my view.

    More important – if there is a choice between more money that at some point will achieve a sustainable balance between supply and demand (stability) and a system where only more pavement will be built and taxes will have to keep going up to maintain more land miles and lay more pavement – then I think we need to seek the supply/demand model.

    BUT in BOTH cases – money .. whether from taxes OR from tolls if not properly accounted for WILL be mispent.

    So we ALREADY mispend it.

    I believe that TOLL Roads are ..inevitable – because there simple does not exist the political will to raise taxes to the level that would be needed to make a major dent in the backlog.

    500 million or even a billion a year in a state the size of Virginia with urban areas like NoVa and HR … will not buy much when URBAN interstates run 100 million a mile and more and interchanges like Springfield – 700 million. Same deal in HR.. tunnels are hugely expensive.

    The ONLY viable way in my view is to have a system that forces a supply/demand discipline – which is a private sector capital investment firm looking at the costs . and the demand in terms of likely toll proceeds and the make the responsible financial calculation (which they must do or they go belly up).

    VDOT will never do this. Not just because they are VDOT but because government, in general, does not operate on a business basis – even though it could.

    So I favor private tolls with explicit agreements especially with regard to what the proceeds would be spent for.

    to conclude – I’d point out that in Indiana’s case – the agreement with the private operators was for the entire concession fee to go to INDOT.

    So.. you _could_ in Va do the same thing – have all toll proceeds go to VDOT (even though this would turn my stomach) unless JLARCs reforms were adopted.

  8. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    well I did a little checking and indeed the London deal is characterized as congestion pricing.

    but it’s different because it works off a boundary whereas other schemes set tolls on particular roads or even a network of roads so in that case you could have roads inside of a boundary that were tolled or not.. or different tolls at different hours – potentially.

    I personally favor having the private sector handle the tolls on a contractual basis that specifies performance criteria and a concession fee.

    But let’s back up to whether or not one believes there is a need for more money for transportation – first – then what follows if it is agreed that more money is needed.

    I tend to think that more money IS needed but not for the same reasons that others might think.

    What I favor money for is system preservation, safety and optimization of existing infrastructure including our many deficient bridges FIRST and I don’t think we have enough money right now for doing that.

    I don’t buy the 100 billion dollar backlog – or at least I will not until I see a ranked and prioritized list using objective needs-based criteria.

    More money for more roads on a generalized basis with specific budgets and CIPs is essentially a slush fund .. ripe for misuse and squandering… in my view.

    More important – if there is a choice between more money that at some point will achieve a sustainable balance between supply and demand (stability) and a system where only more pavement will be built and taxes will have to keep going up to maintain more land miles and lay more pavement – then I think we need to seek the supply/demand model.

    BUT in BOTH cases – money .. whether from taxes OR from tolls if not properly accounted for WILL be mispent.

    So we ALREADY mispend it.

    I believe that TOLL Roads are ..inevitable – because there simple does not exist the political will to raise taxes to the level that would be needed to make a major dent in the backlog.

    500 million or even a billion a year in a state the size of Virginia with urban areas like NoVa and HR … will not buy much when URBAN interstates run 100 million a mile and more and interchanges like Springfield – 700 million. Same deal in HR.. tunnels are hugely expensive.

    The ONLY viable way in my view is to have a system that forces a supply/demand discipline – which is a private sector capital investment firm looking at the costs . and the demand in terms of likely toll proceeds and the make the responsible financial calculation (which they must do or they go belly up).

    VDOT will never do this. Not just because they are VDOT but because government, in general, does not operate on a business basis – even though it could.

    So I favor private tolls with explicit agreements especially with regard to what the proceeds would be spent for.

    to conclude – I’d point out that in Indiana’s case – the agreement with the private operators was for the entire concession fee to go to INDOT.

    So.. you _could_ in Va do the same thing – have all toll proceeds go to VDOT (even though this would turn my stomach) unless JLARCs reforms were adopted.

  9. politically very incorrect Avatar
    politically very incorrect

    first it was tolls on the dulles toll road until the road was paid for. then it was tolls until the additional lanes were paid for. then it was tolls until the interchanges were improved. but before they finished improving the interchanges, someone decided to give the toll revenue to mwaa for the next 50 years to build a rail line to loudoun. so now the last few interchanges that need widened can wait 50 years and you and i will be dead before the tolls are gone. west group will be richer at the expense of commuters who never got the promised improvements and congestion relief. democrats and republicans seem to be going along with this to evade responsibility for the doubling of the tolls which are scheduled to be doubled again by mwaa in 2 years. read the agreement. why tax the toll road users who never enter tysons? why not a cordon tax on everyone going to the mall or a west group office building? check out the hundreds of thousands of dollars west group’s owners donated to kaines coffers. any delegate or senator who did not vote to block this give away of revenue to mwaa and west group should be voted out of office. that includes the husband mistress team otherwise known as devil-lite-davis!

  10. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    re: why not use cordon tolls?

    Actually, I think we have barely begun to scratch the surface with regard to how to utilize tolling technology to “best advantage” and therein is THE issue.

    Citizens, expect a quid-pro-quo. TOLLs should provide less congested roads, certainly less gridlock-like conditions at rush hour.

    In order to meet that goal, an actual “Congestion Management PLAN” needs to exist including a CIP for improvements which would include timing of lights, removal of bottlenecks, improved ramps, etc – in general optimization of the current network.

    Legislators, local officials and remora-like private interests are looking for money and infrastructure-driven ventures.

    Unfortunately there is no agency that accepts this mission statement. VDOT would be the logical agency but VDOT has an undeniable track record of believing that the solution to transportation and traffic is expensive infrastructure FIRST rather than system presevation and optimization of the existing network.

    That would, should be the primary focus of TOLLs of any kind – to manage congestion and to utilize the toll proceeds FIRST for required maintenance and then what is left over to improve and upgrade to get more utility and then, if demand trends indicate, fund CIPs for major new infrastructure.

    Even then, such infrastructure should be in the form of upgrades/retrofits to better connect the existing network and to add redundancy so that a major accident does not generate gridlock-lock conditions.

    No one is focused on this. Instead, many players see the $$$ that can come from TOLLs and it’s currently a Dodge City, Katy bar the door environment.

    So many players trying to get their hand on the money.

    The issue is NOT that SOME of the intended uses are not necessarily good or bad. It’s the PROCESS that puts the whole deal at risk.

    The same thing that allows pro-transit folks to get their hands on the TOLL money also allows others to get their hands on the money for other uses – like airports – and it’s the lack of controls that puts the entire concept at risk.

    You can actually understand how MWAA would assert that the airport and as important, access to the airport is indeed about Mobility but is it the most important mobility priority in the region?

    A huge disservice is being done by this blatant money grab and I think the worst of the worst is how little that public officials regard the public interests.

    They really don’t care. They’ve got their OWN interests – like taxpayer dollars and customer TOLLs have absolutely nothing to do with services for the folks who pay the bills.

    I’m totally disgusted with the way Virginia does transportation and mobility. The folks who are paid by tax dollars provide an effective transportation network are balkanized into different rice bowls (like VDOT, VRE, Dept of Rail, etc) rather than an Agency whose mission is mobility.

    Local and state elected politicians are more than happy to get in bed with development interests that they portray as business-friendly partnerships when, in fact, many are unholy alliances designed to suck on taxpayers dollars for private benefit.

    The Airport Authorities brazen grab of funds, actually encouraged/enabled by the current administration so troubles me that even though I strongly believe that TOLLs could be a path to a better transporation future, it is clear that the money will be squandered on ineffective uses just like some of our gas taxes are right now.

  11. Reid Greenmun Avatar
    Reid Greenmun

    Corruption runs free in the all-appointed, unaccountable “authorities” the General Assembly sets up as “political subdivisions” with far more pwer than they should be granted.

    I have watched many of our state’s regional “authorities” morph into “partnerships” that simply use tax funds to subsidize what becomes a organized and well staffed LOBBY for private industry.

    We residents, taxpayers, and citizens become the sheep to be shorn – and the voices to be marginalized.

    The MSM is a business – and they side with the Growth Lobby – many pushing Socialism as their underlying agenda.

    Even the tax dollar addicted Universities have joined “the team” – and are the research and publishing wing of the Growth Lobby.

    The Hampton Roads Partnership (HRP) has 92 Board members – not one civic organization or taxpayer organization has a seat at the table. And the Virginia Beach Council of Civic Organizations has asked – and been denied. The same for the Virginia Beach Taxpayer’s Alliance.

    The board of the HRP is the whos who of political influence peddlers (business folks that “contribute” money to campaigns and pick the “candidates”), along with the Mayors of each of the region’s locacalities, the heads of the region’s Universities/Colleges, and High Ranking Military Representatives looking to stake out their after military employment situations or find a base of support for their future plans for political office.

    What attracks the greedy moths to the flame?

    Power derived from spending Billions extorted from the local residents.

  12. flat Avatar
    flat

    add this up
    Dulles Rail = no money for roads

  13. Ray Hyde Avatar
    Ray Hyde

    Groveton didn’t say whether the tollwas successful at reducing congestion.

    However, experience suggests that whatever money is collected will be co-oped for other purposes. We should recognize this up front and not use the shibboleth that “user pays” to sell the idea. Let’s call it what it is, a tax increase, with no control over how the money is spent.

    If that’s going to be the case, then why not a general tax increase? Why not a tax increase that has something to do with ability to pay? Why tax only those that already have to live and work in the most expensive locations?

  14. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    A TOLL is not a TAX and more importantly whether want to believe it is or not the difference between a TOLL and a gas tax is that the TOLL charges you specifically for what time of day you use the road
    .. which is the reason why we’ve fallen behind – because we have to size new roads for maximum rush hour and that makes them so much more expensive that there will not be enough funding no matter how high you raise the gas tax.

    The TOLL does what the TAX cannot do which is to both manage congestion and to maximize and optimize the existing transportation network AND TOLLs will tell you WHAT upgrades are needed rather than some guy behind a desk at VDOT who is doing so by the seat of his pants.

    There will be no end to tax increases either because once the money is spent on new infrastructure they’ll be back again for another increase.

    Just this one thing.. without any other reforms… would make a huge difference in our congestion AND our infrastructure neeeds.

    Remember also – trying to track the money in a huge VDOT slush fund is not the same as keeping track of the money for a TOLL road – like the Dulles one.

    You can bet your sweet hiny that a whole bunch of people are going to be looking into those finances.

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