Don’t Mess With Our Roads

by   |  February 27, 2008

Folks are up in arms over the plans by George W. Bush’s Texas political heir to privatize the highways, according to the New York Times. It’s a simple scheme, really. Rather than deal with the state’s transportation challenges, Governor Rick Perry wants to let private companies build roads and then charge Texans and others to use them. While that may lead to profits for the corporate investors, locals like Linda Stall fear they will pay the price:

“The only person who loses is the citizen,” she said. “We’re paying everyone’s profit.” She also said investors would “cherry pick” the most lucrative toll routes, leaving other sections unfinanced.

Driven by wrong-minded public officials and corporate greed, privatization and contracting out all too often fail the tests of cost effectiveness or quality. Time and time again, the public pays more and gets lower quality of services while public workers are laid off and corruption scandals make the news. Perry’s Texas toll-road boondoggle is just the latest – and one of the largest – example of a corporate giveaway. What will they privatize next?