The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

November 18, 2009

Commission’s I-80 toll study rebuked

Consultant questions firm’s credibility

By Matt Snyder

MERCER COUNTY — A transportation consultant on Wednesday said a recent study on tolling Interstate 80 submitted by the would-be tollers, the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, does not appear to be either independent or particularly credible.

Brian F. Chase, a former vice president of the investment firm The Carlyle Group and an infrastructure consultant, testified in Harrisburg before a Republican Policy Committee.

The commission’s proposed tolling plans were rejected in September 2008 by the Federal Highway Administration, but this month they submitted a “fair market analysis” meant to show the feds that their tolling plan is fair when compared to similar, private arrangements.

But the company they hired to do that fair market analysis, Provident Capital Advisors, seemed more like a “hired gun,” based on Wednesday’s testimony, said state Rep. Mark Longietti, D-7th District, Hermitage.

Chase told lawmakers that Provident was chosen and paid for by the turnpike commission. He said it would have been more appropriate for the Highway Administration to choose someone to conduct the study.

He also said Provident has some credibility issues, since they didn’t exist until a few days before they were hired by a commission consultant. Before that, he said, they were Provident Healthcare Coalition LLC.

“Why wasn’t a more reputable and experienced firm engaged to do this work?” Chase asked in notes of his Wednesday testimony.

Lawmakers from Mercer County, who universally oppose tolling I-80 and claim it would be an economic albatross around the I-80 corridor’s neck, got behind Chase’s testimony.

Commission spokesman Bill Capone, meanwhile, called his criticisms “grossly unfair,” adding they chose Provident precisely because they weren’t heavily involved with or influenced by either I-80 or the turnpike leasing proposal once endorsed by Gov. Ed Rendell.

Working for Carlyle, Chase said he followed Rendell’s proposal closely, but didn’t bid on the turnpike. They did express some interest in the Mon-Fayette Expressway project, he said.

Capone added that Provident has worked on skyway and public parking projects in Chicago, and that the firm’s techniques for determining I-80’s value are universal across a number of sectors, including banking, energy companies and toll roads.

Further, Capone said the commission ran the firm it selected under the highway administration’s nose before they used them.

“In our view, we went out and hired someone totally independent. To suggest that because we hired them that they weren’t independent, I think that’s ridiculous,” he said.

Chase also told House Republicans that I-80 was a “poor choice” for tolling, said state Rep. Richard Stevenson, Grove City, R-8th District. “In fact, he testified that to his knowledge there has never been a successful conversion of a free highway to a tolled highway. He does not believe I-80 will be the first model, especially considering the large extent of public opposition to the plan,” Stevenson said in a release.

Tolling I-80 is supposed to bring in about $60 billion over 50 years, and without it, $900 million in annual payouts from the turnpike commission to PennDOT for fixing up the state’s roads and bridges each year will drop to about $450 million.

The commission is required by state law to provide that money in the meantime, and to toll I-80. They lobbied the state heavily prior to the tolling law’s passage.

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