Tom Warne Report, 28 October 2011
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Communities along Ohio’s 241-mile turnpike would benefit the most from a privatization deal for the turnpike, according to Gov. John Kasich. The Republican governor made the pledge to residents of northern Ohio in an effort to ease the public’s concerns following a Sept. 27 Quinnipiac poll that found 56 percent of Ohio voters thought leasing the Ohio Turnpike was a bad idea. Critics of the plan have claimed the governor would unfairly distribute the revenue from the lease deal to pay for projects as far as Cincinnati and other far regions of the state.
“We’ll make the commitment that at least half the proceeds from a lease or bond would mean we put at least half the money on roads that are north of Route 30. We think that is a fair thing,” Kasich said in a speech at a transportation engineers conference in Columbus. “We can’t put it all up there because, you know, we have infrastructure needs all across the state. But we can give at least half to the people that live up there.”
The governor said earlier this year that he would like to sign a $3 billion privatization deal for the Ohio Turnpike, which would bring the state $2.4 billion after debt payments. In his speech this week, the governor backed away from those figures and declined to specify how much he hopes to get from such a deal.