The Toll Road trial got to the real heart of the toll road privatization debate. The reason the Toll Road lost money is because the legislature lacked the will to raise tolls on the road. The foreign consortium will have no such inhibitions. Essentially the legislature is outsourcing its taxing responsibilities.
The issue came up when the plaintiffs challenging the Toll Road privatization were seeking to show that stopping the deal from going through would harm the State either minimally or not at all.
Roger Skurski, a retired University of Notre Dame economics professor, testified that the state could make more money if it kept the toll road for the 75-year term of the lease. He said that by using state figures he estimates the state could make anywhere from $1.5 billion to $8 billion more than the $3.8 billion it will be paid under the lease.
“The state is forgoing the opportunity to make these numbers,” he said.
A state attorney, Michael Wilkins, questioned Skurski’s calculations, asking him how he could assume the highway’s tolls would go up 4.42 percent a year when they hadn’t been raised since 1985.
“Historically, there’s no basis for a 4.4 percent increase over a period of time, is there?” Wilkins asked.
“I guess my assumption was that if the state can figure out a way to let the lessor raise the rates, the state should be able to figure out a way to increase the rates,” Skurski said.
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