Beltway Toll Plan May Need Va. Funds – washingtonpost.com
“I think it demonstrates the risks involved in seeing privatization as a panacea,” said Gerald E. Connolly (D), chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. “We can’t simply hope that the tooth fairy, in the form of the private sector, will make all of our problems go away.”
No, but you can hope that a plan that you agreed to doesn’t go $100 million over budget. The sequence of events seems to have gone like this:
- Private industry says, “We can make an HOT lane without using any taxpayer money, thereby easing congestion and making a profit!”
- Virginia government says, “Sweet, go for it, dude.”
- Private industry says, “Oops, when we said ‘no taxpayer money’, we really meant ‘$100 million in taxpayer money’. Our bad.”
- Virginia government says, “Looks like you’re not the tooth fairy! Here’s some cash.”
Great. It probably won’t even help traffic.