35Pete
November 29th, 2007, 7:35:56 AM
Rudy Giuliani Benefits From Sale Of U.S. Highways To Foreign Companies; Q&A With Pat Choate On Privatizing U.S. Highways & The NAFTA Superhighway
Y RICHARD McCORMACK
richard@manufacturingnews.com
The sell-off of American highways to private companies coupled with the controversial plan to build the "NAFTA Superhighway" has become an explosive political subject in many states. The influx of foreign companies involved in becoming owners of public assets has further enraged the public, as have details about their financial ties with some of the country's most well-known politicians.
One of the biggest whoppers in the whole debate about political patronage and the sell-off of public infrastructure concerns the $100-million buyout of the firm owned by Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani by Macquarie, the big Australian investment banking firm.
Macquarie Infrastructure has partnered with the Spanish firm Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte in the controversial purchase of the Indiana Toll Road. The two companies are also part of a major political uprising in Texas concerning the privatization of State Highway 121 outside of Dallas. A Macquarie division has spent $110 million buying up 42 local newspapers along the Trans-Texas Corridor (the NAFTA Superhighway corridor).
Pat Choate, who was Ross Perot's running mate on the 1996 presidential ticket, has spent the past year studying the NAFTA Superhighway and state and federal governments' desire to privatize America's highways. Choate is known as one of America's foremost economic experts on infrastructure. Twenty-five years ago, he wrote two influential books --"America in Ruins" and "Bad Roads." He alerted America that there was an "infrastructure crisis" coming. It is now squarely upon us.
President Reagan appointed Choate to his task force to develop the policy agenda for his second term. Choate wrote the infrastructure section.
Choate is a native Texan whose family has lived in Ellis County for more than 160 years. He is currently director of the Manufacturing Policy Project. He received an M.A. and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Oklahoma.
He sat down recently with Manufacturing & Technology News editor Richard McCormack to discuss the latest developments in the ongoing saga of privatizing America's infrastructure. He provided documentation for virtually everything he describes in the interview below.
Question: What are the latest developments in the debate over privatizing American highways?
Choate: Texas is the battleground for a major policy shift on who owns and operates America's public infrastructure, including highways. You have the U.S. Department of Transportation trying to get the states to lease public roads to private toll operators and allow these private operators to build new ones. In Texas, there is a budgetary shell game under way. The governor and the legislature beginning with George W. Bush, have diverted $15 billion out of the state highway department and put that money in the general budget. In Texas, they now have 85 percent of their highway transportation money going into maintaining their roads and only 15 percent going into new construction, compared to the national state average of 52 percent going into maintenance and 48 percent into construction.
The Texas legislature and governor have chosen to get big chunks of up-front money -- $2-billion to $3-billion per project on 13 projects around the state along with $6 billion or $7 billion on the 600-mile Trans Texas Corridor -- by turning public roads over to private interests.
Fundamentally what is happening is Gov. Perry wishes to finance his tax cuts by getting pre-payments on leasing public property. They are turning the public infrastructure over to private entities for 50 years.
Q: How is that playing out in Texas?
Choate: You have a handful of citizens -- people who are really extraordinary -- who said they're not going to put up with it. The first thing they did was actively participate in the Texas Department of Transportation environmental hearings. They got 14,000 people to show up at those meetings which TxDOT really intended to be perfunctory events.
There was a documentary filmmaker who made "Truth Be Told," which just won the Houston Film Award for best documentary. He filmed the public hearings -- it's terrific stuff. The witnesses were passionate and could not believe the governor and legislature intended to convert one of the state's major freeways into a privately-owned toll road.
When the legislature came back in session this year, they had heard from their constituents. They approved a piece of legislation [HB-1892] by a vote of 131-to-1 in the House and 27-to-4 in the Senate that mandated a two-year moratorium on privatization. Yet the governor vetoed it.
When the bill looked like it was going to pass, Perry rushed forward and signed a contract with [Spanish firm] Cintra to complete the privatization of Rt. 121 in Dallas.
Involved in this rush deal on Rt. 121 in Dallas was a very prominent New York lawyer from a Texas firm named Bracewell & Giuliani who was paid very handsome amounts to put together the finance and legal work. In March, Macquarie Bank from Australia bought [Presidential hopeful Rudy] Giuliani's investment division, which had less than 100 people and lost $1.65 million last year. Macquarie paid $100 million for it. Giuliani personally gets $70 million.
Q: Why hasn't there been much reporting or attention paid to this sale, given its controversial nature?
Choate: There has literally been no coverage here, but in the Australian press you got all this reporting about the deal saying, "What is Macquarie doing? They are overpaying for this company."
Well, I can tell you exactly what they're doing. Macquarie can't put money into a presidential campaign, but Rudy Giuliani can. It's a back-door way to finance the Giuliani campaign for 20-million, 40-million, 50-million bucks. Macquarie wants to own a president who will do tolling all over America. It is phenomenal.
Macquarie is a very shrewd corporation. As the opposition to this highway deal heated up in Texas, Macquarie bought 42 little newspapers, virtually all of which are along the route and most of which opposed the deal editorially. Why not? They can take billions of dollars out of Texas if Gov. Perry gets his way.
<a href="http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/07/0615/art2.html"><b>Read This Example Of The Financial Rape Of America By The Elite and Enabled By El Duce Himself</b></a>
Y RICHARD McCORMACK
richard@manufacturingnews.com
The sell-off of American highways to private companies coupled with the controversial plan to build the "NAFTA Superhighway" has become an explosive political subject in many states. The influx of foreign companies involved in becoming owners of public assets has further enraged the public, as have details about their financial ties with some of the country's most well-known politicians.
One of the biggest whoppers in the whole debate about political patronage and the sell-off of public infrastructure concerns the $100-million buyout of the firm owned by Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani by Macquarie, the big Australian investment banking firm.
Macquarie Infrastructure has partnered with the Spanish firm Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte in the controversial purchase of the Indiana Toll Road. The two companies are also part of a major political uprising in Texas concerning the privatization of State Highway 121 outside of Dallas. A Macquarie division has spent $110 million buying up 42 local newspapers along the Trans-Texas Corridor (the NAFTA Superhighway corridor).
Pat Choate, who was Ross Perot's running mate on the 1996 presidential ticket, has spent the past year studying the NAFTA Superhighway and state and federal governments' desire to privatize America's highways. Choate is known as one of America's foremost economic experts on infrastructure. Twenty-five years ago, he wrote two influential books --"America in Ruins" and "Bad Roads." He alerted America that there was an "infrastructure crisis" coming. It is now squarely upon us.
President Reagan appointed Choate to his task force to develop the policy agenda for his second term. Choate wrote the infrastructure section.
Choate is a native Texan whose family has lived in Ellis County for more than 160 years. He is currently director of the Manufacturing Policy Project. He received an M.A. and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Oklahoma.
He sat down recently with Manufacturing & Technology News editor Richard McCormack to discuss the latest developments in the ongoing saga of privatizing America's infrastructure. He provided documentation for virtually everything he describes in the interview below.
Question: What are the latest developments in the debate over privatizing American highways?
Choate: Texas is the battleground for a major policy shift on who owns and operates America's public infrastructure, including highways. You have the U.S. Department of Transportation trying to get the states to lease public roads to private toll operators and allow these private operators to build new ones. In Texas, there is a budgetary shell game under way. The governor and the legislature beginning with George W. Bush, have diverted $15 billion out of the state highway department and put that money in the general budget. In Texas, they now have 85 percent of their highway transportation money going into maintaining their roads and only 15 percent going into new construction, compared to the national state average of 52 percent going into maintenance and 48 percent into construction.
The Texas legislature and governor have chosen to get big chunks of up-front money -- $2-billion to $3-billion per project on 13 projects around the state along with $6 billion or $7 billion on the 600-mile Trans Texas Corridor -- by turning public roads over to private interests.
Fundamentally what is happening is Gov. Perry wishes to finance his tax cuts by getting pre-payments on leasing public property. They are turning the public infrastructure over to private entities for 50 years.
Q: How is that playing out in Texas?
Choate: You have a handful of citizens -- people who are really extraordinary -- who said they're not going to put up with it. The first thing they did was actively participate in the Texas Department of Transportation environmental hearings. They got 14,000 people to show up at those meetings which TxDOT really intended to be perfunctory events.
There was a documentary filmmaker who made "Truth Be Told," which just won the Houston Film Award for best documentary. He filmed the public hearings -- it's terrific stuff. The witnesses were passionate and could not believe the governor and legislature intended to convert one of the state's major freeways into a privately-owned toll road.
When the legislature came back in session this year, they had heard from their constituents. They approved a piece of legislation [HB-1892] by a vote of 131-to-1 in the House and 27-to-4 in the Senate that mandated a two-year moratorium on privatization. Yet the governor vetoed it.
When the bill looked like it was going to pass, Perry rushed forward and signed a contract with [Spanish firm] Cintra to complete the privatization of Rt. 121 in Dallas.
Involved in this rush deal on Rt. 121 in Dallas was a very prominent New York lawyer from a Texas firm named Bracewell & Giuliani who was paid very handsome amounts to put together the finance and legal work. In March, Macquarie Bank from Australia bought [Presidential hopeful Rudy] Giuliani's investment division, which had less than 100 people and lost $1.65 million last year. Macquarie paid $100 million for it. Giuliani personally gets $70 million.
Q: Why hasn't there been much reporting or attention paid to this sale, given its controversial nature?
Choate: There has literally been no coverage here, but in the Australian press you got all this reporting about the deal saying, "What is Macquarie doing? They are overpaying for this company."
Well, I can tell you exactly what they're doing. Macquarie can't put money into a presidential campaign, but Rudy Giuliani can. It's a back-door way to finance the Giuliani campaign for 20-million, 40-million, 50-million bucks. Macquarie wants to own a president who will do tolling all over America. It is phenomenal.
Macquarie is a very shrewd corporation. As the opposition to this highway deal heated up in Texas, Macquarie bought 42 little newspapers, virtually all of which are along the route and most of which opposed the deal editorially. Why not? They can take billions of dollars out of Texas if Gov. Perry gets his way.
<a href="http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/07/0615/art2.html"><b>Read This Example Of The Financial Rape Of America By The Elite and Enabled By El Duce Himself</b></a>