That's got to be the best deal ever for Transurban.  They not only bought their way into a sweetheart deal (that will ultimately come back to bite the taxpayers and drivers in NOVA), but they now get all their money back.  So they essentially paid nothing to win the project - damn that's a good deal.

I'm still skeptical about HOT (+express) lanes in general.  They might work in some fashion - I'm not sure.  But the more I hear about this particular deal the worse it gets.  This thing is not right - that I am sure of.  

1.  The state is providing below market financing to the private companies for the construction of the HOT lanes (sorry all of you with foreclosed mortgages, you need not apply); and,

2.  If more than 27% of the HOT lane drivers use the lanes for free by having three or more occupants, we (I mean the state) will pay the private companies for their lost fees.  Forget conservation.  And, of course, we (I mean the state) will never regain ownership of our infrastructure.

Corporate socialism wins again!

It almost makes me want to be an economic libertarian.

are listed here.  In total, Transurban has given $177,000 since 2005 to Virginia politicians and PACs, about half (51%) to Republicans and about half (47%) to Democrats. For anyone - Republican or Democrat - who cares about good government, this is not good.  

Click here to listen.

Bill Redlin: The Washington Post is reporting this morning that you and others received illegal campaign contributions from a company involved in road construction  projects. This is an Australian company that's now apologizing for violating the ban on contributions from foreign companies.  According to the story, your campaign and political action committee got about $9,500.  How did this come about, how did this happen?

Tim Kaine: The company, Transurban, has an American subsidiary, and American companies can contribute to campaigns in Virginia. All the contributions were made by the American company, and so all the recipients - and I think there were about 75 members of the legislature and other state officials that received contributions - the  contributions were coming from an American company, and so we assumed that they were correct. The company wrote us all a letter apologizing yesterday, saying the checks came from the American company, but the dollars were not from American operations they were from from Australian operations.  The company admitted that none of us would have had reason to know that, but they have admitted that they did wrong and they've asked for the dollars to be returned and of course we're going to do that.

Bill Redlin: Do you think this is going to have any effect on how the state moves forward with its transportation projects?

Tim Kaine: I don't think so, I mean, you know, this was something where folks in both parties were in the same position, all of us had received contributions from an American company, which American companies can contribute to Virginia political campaigns. The company made a mistake,  has apologized, and made plain that it was their fault and not ours. But of course, we've committed to return the dollars, I think the company's gonna contribute the money to charity.

All clear now?

Glad to know that because the contribution mess has been cleaned up the projects on can still on forward (i.e., as long as you pay in some currency of value, you will still get your contracts).

The 495 HOT lanes are in the design and pre-construction planning phases.  They will start work on them this year.  The 95/395 HOT lanes are in the environmental review stage, and they expect to start work in 2009.  Contracts are already signed.

This was the best Richmond could do in terms of expansion.  And Republicans want to use Public-Private Transportation Act (PPTA) projects even more.  I don't see Democrats scrambling to repeal the PPTA either.  And unless Dems take the house, meaning the majority of Virginians accept a tax hike, we aren't spending billions on transportation.  So, we'll have to live with these deals.

According to the WaPo article, Kaine's Moving Virginia Forward PAC received $9,500.  That hardly seems like an influential amount of money.  And the total amount contributed was just $172k for 90 total individuals, about $2k per person.  And the people negotiating and approving this contract were at VDOT, not elected officials.  Well, I guess there were those people on the NVRTA, but still.  I think there is a lot of overreacting to this.

Everyone can look up the donations on www.vpap.org.  And you can see that nearly everyone in the Northern Virginia delegation got money from them.  Even David Englin, Patsy Ticer, and Mary Margaret Whipple got some money from these folks.  And this is only half the picture because Transurban is the operator after the transportation facilities are constructed.  Fluor is the lead on construction, and they contributed another $162k in the 2006-2007 period.  But still it it a tall order to say that either company got something in return for their donations.  Or that the amount of money somehow puts those politicians in the pockets of these two companies.  

Actually, according to VPAP, Tim Kaine received $10,000 for his inaugural, $5,000 for his governor's campaign, and $4,500 for his PAC.  That's $19,500, not $9,500, but whatever...it's just the corporate media we're talking about here, god forbid they should ever get anything right.

Kaine's inaugural got $50k from Altria, that didn't stop him from supporting the smoking ban in restaurants.  

Bribery is a heavy charge to level.  So, where is the evidence that any of the public officials that received money from Transurban intervened on their behalf with VDOT to get the HOT lane deals done?

The HOT lane deals were getting done regardless of this money.  It was not on the radar in the 2007 election.  There haven't been a flood of letters to the General Assembly telling them to stop it.  And there isn't a fountain of dollars from the state paying for transportation improvements.  What else was VDOT going to do?  The PPTA law has been on the books since 1996.  

I was just pointing out that the Washington Post can't get anything right.

....and I still love the man.

But WTF!???

Dominion, Transurban.....how can he defend this kind of politics where monied special interests are OBVIOUSLY paying to get the results they want, regardless of whether it's what's best for the Commonwealth of Virginia and its citizens.

I hate special interest involvement in campaign contributions.

Obama and the DNC have the right idea.  We need to ban this money in Virginia or else we're never going to have honesty from our electeds.

...don't forget our other favorite, "Big Dig to Dulles" Bechtel! :)

If both parties received donations then it's ok.  It would only be bad if members of one party received the money.

It's all so clear now! ;)

The people elect 'em, the corporations direct 'em $$?

Very "savvy" of Transurban to grease the skids all around, though Dominion is the hands down winner of "cash all around".
From 2005 - 2008, Dominion scattered @$2.01mm among our VA elected officials..the top recipient from 2005-2008: Bill Howell's Dominion Leadership Trust PAC @$170,000.

 

And checks and balances.  Like I say, "they're all bought."