I write to offer some thoughts about the tolls issue.
Let me first state that I am writing this as an individual, and not as a representative of any group or organization with which I am affiliated.
I find it difficult to understand the vehement opposition to tolls that is voiced by the substantial majority of people in NKY. For me, the issue is quite simple: do we as a community want to invest in our own well-being and future? I would hope the answer would be a resounding “yes!” But it is not.
We invest in things that are important to us every day. While the state constitution guarantees all children a free public K-12 education, many families in our community choose to send their children to a different system, many to the parochial system, and pay tuition to do so. They do not say to their parish priest, “I contribute to the church, why should I pay tuition for my child to attend the church school?” They know that the additional service, which they greatly value, must be paid for.
Similarly, people invest in their health, many or most by sharing the cost of health insurance with their employers by paying a share of the premium. Medicare recipients share the cost by paying a premium to the government, and those who obtain insurance on the Marketplace (Kynect), under the Affordable Care Act, pay a premium share while receiving tax credits.
Many services we rely on are provided by government, for which we pay taxes. These include public safety, our police and fire fighters; public elementary and secondary education; environmental protection; workplace safety; homeland security; etc. People know they will pay tuition for higher education, whether for a public or private institution. We accept this – we may grumble, but we know that these things we value, which improve our lives, come at a cost which we share in.
Even employment itself has become a public-private partnership. People who work at low wage jobs, jobs which are very important to our economy, do not make enough to provide economic stability. They must rely on publicly-funded work supports – child care assistance, Earned Income Tax Credit, Food Assistance, Medicaid – to achieve stability. Their employer pays about one half of their compensation, government the other half. This sharing allows low-wage employment to be viable.
Finally, we invest in pensions, IRA’s and 401(k)’s, knowing that Social Security alone cannot sustain us in retirement. We invest in the stock market, to provide additional income. We invest in seeds to have flowers in season.
So: what is so different about investing in the bridge? Government will pay a huge share of it – just not all of it. Any more than it does for a public university education. By paying tolls we would be investing in our safety, our health, both physical and mental – those who, like me, drive back and forth across the bridge every day know what I am talking about. It would provide more efficient transportation to our region, for all purposes. And it would support commerce and our constantly growing economy.
We need a bridge. It is not unreasonable for us to share in its cost. I am told there are roughly 80 bridges the size and scope of the Brent Spence Bridge being built across the country – and that all or almost all of them involve tolls.
Paying tolls would be investing in ourselves, our families, and our futures.
I think it’s time for us to step up and assume control of our destiny. Let’s build the bridge.
Col Owens is an attorney who lives in Ft. Mitchell and works in Ohio. Contact him at col.owens@gmail.com
I appreciate Mr. Owens’ opinion on the Brent Spence Bridge. However, he seems to be misinformed about a few things:
1. The federal government, at present, will not be providing “a huge portion” of the project. According to the documents provided on the project, the federal govt. share of construction is just $176 million of the estimated $2.6 Billion.
2. There are not 80 bridges the size and scope of the Brent Spence project being built with tolls. There are not even 80 bridges in the country the size and scope of the Brent Spence project at all. According to documents provided on the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor website, there are only 32 mega-projects in the whole country considering tolling. Of those, only 16 of them are over $2 Billion. Almost all of them are struggling to gain the support of the public.
I would encourage those who have accepted at face value what they have been told about this project to do a little homework on the subject. Many of the states who have had P3 legislation on the books for decades are only now considering large mega-projects under P3 arrangements. Why? Because the process is extremely complicated. A large, complex mega-project should not be the first project undertaken by a state– like Kentucky– with no experience in public-private partnerships for transportation projects.
Additionally, Mr. Owens analogy with private schools is a bit off the mark. Unless he supports the privatization of our public infrastructure? The tolling of a free Highway Interstate is more comparable to the state of Kentucky deciding to start charging for attendance at public schools. More specifically, it would be as if a public school decided it wanted to build a new $2.6 Billion gymnasium financed by Wall Street at an ultimate cost of $7.5 Billion, and in order to pay for it decided to start charging “tuition” at the public school.
I’m assuming Mr. Owens would never support the privatization of our public schools. It’s unclear to me why he would support the privatization of our public roads.
Invest in whose well-being? How would Northern Kentucky in general, and Covington in particular, benefit from spending 3 billion dollars we don’t have (for a bridge which is scheduled to last another 50 years according to federal highway engineers) so that Cincinnati could build a truck/rail transit center which would send several hundred more trucks up the cut-in-the-hill per day? Those trucks will drive right on past, and in so doing, cause real traffic jams (as opposed to the tiny ones we have now), all the while diverting traffic onto our three other bridges which are not built for it? Whose well-being would involve screwing up Covington, creating traffic jams, and a tax hike to cover spending for a bridge which isn’t needed? This boondoggle really needs to stop.