WASHINGTON -- NATSO, the trade association representing truckstops and travel plazas, has joined with other industry groups to form Americans for a Strong National Highway Network, which opposes the latest trend of privatizing and selling the U.S. highway network.
NATSO president and CEO Lisa Mullings spoke at the coalition's press conference on February 9 at the National Press Club. The visionaries who created the Interstate Highway System in 1956 did not want to duplicate the anti-competitive conditions found on toll roads, she said. They chose to [image-nocss] fund this impressive American network without the use of tolls because they envisioned a level playing field. They knew that a system of toll roads would limit the choices for the motorist.
She added, By the year 2010, small-business owners who provide services to highway users along the Interstate are expected to employ over two million Americans and generate nearly $200 billion in sales annually. Tolls would threaten those highway-based businesses by diverting traffic onto secondary roads that are not equipped to handle this additional volume. But now the government threatens to stifle our economic progress by granting a monopoly power to private firms. The interests of business owners along the highways have been ignored.
By 2010, highway service facilities are projected to purchase $106 billion in goods and services, NATSO said. They will also collect $12.1 billion in state fuel taxes, $1.8 billion in property taxes, $4.2 billion in state sales taxes and $4.5 billion in state and local lodging taxes.
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.),chairman of the House Subcommittee on Highways & Transit, said government should carefully examine the move to privatize the nation's highways. "For the Bush Administration, the rush to promote public-private partnerships is based in ideology, not a critical evaluation of how public-private partnerships might help meet the goal of an improved, integrated national transportation system and further the public interest," he said.
Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr. (R-Tenn.), ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Highways & Transit, said, I share this coalition's concerns about the recent waive of long-term leases of existing toll roads by private entities. I believe we need to understand the impacts that tolling can have on the traveling public, private industry and the economy before we enter into any more of these agreements.
He continued, In order to gather more information on this increasing trend, the Highways & Transit Subcommittee has scheduled a hearing on public-private partnerships on February 13. At this hearing, we will examine the advantages and the disadvantages of encouraging private investment in public infrastructure projects. We will also look at the impact of public-private partnerships on our nation's transportation network and address whether or not the public interest is protected when these partnerships are executed.
NATSO said it would like to see state and federal governments embrace the bold vision President Eisenhower and Congress held in the 1950s. Mullings asked, How would these leaders feel about proposals today to delegate the maintenance and control of our roads to private or foreign interests? We will labor to ensure our national transportation network continues to support mobility, security and interstate commerce for the benefit of all Americans.
The group joined with other industry stakeholdersincluding The American Trucking Associations, the American Automobile Association, the American Highway Users Alliance, the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Associationto fight privatization efforts. Throughout 2007, NATSO will work to educate lawmakers, highway officials and the public as to the true cost of tolling and privatization.
In addition, NATSO strongly supports government investment in fuel tax evasion countermeasures and enforcement, it said.NATSO encourages legislative changes that would close legal loopholes that result in less revenue for the nation's public roads, such as the fuel tax exemption for local, state and federal government vehicles and tax evasion by non-Native Americans who purchase tax-free fuel on Native American reservations from tribal retailers.
The trucking industry supports the objective of a toll-free national highway system where funds to finance highway improvements primarily come from highway user fees, such as the fuel tax, said ATA.
To read the full text of Mullings' remarks, click on the Download Now button, below.
Click here to view a letter to Secretary of Transportation MaryPeters from Americans for a Strong National Highway Network.
Click here to view privatization facts.
And click here to view privatization projects.
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