Tholls: From Bad to Worse for GOPe on I-77 fiasco?
Tomorrow, dozens of players in the North Mecklenburg business community will travel to our fair capital city to make it clear they do not care for the plan to slap tolls managed by a foreign contractor on Interstate 77 — a key transportation artery within their home base of operations. The group even includes some players within the NASCAR community — a local, state, and national political force.
Adding to that is a great exposé from Davidson blogger Rich Short. With the help of his friend
Google, Short manages to dig up quite a few professional, personal and political ties between Governor Pat McCrory and the Spanish contractor picked to manage the tolling and widening of Interstate 77. There are consultants close to McCrory’s two campaigns for governor, as well as former staffers at NCGOP involved here. As Short recommends, equip yourself with some Pepto-Bismol before you start reading. What you learn may be a bit stomach-churning.
Looks like desperation is setting in for tolling cronies…http://wideni77.org/2015/06/north-carolina-senate-takes-dead-aim-against-widen-i-77/
We have heard for decades that there are no funds to widen I-77 but now $250 million is put towards the toll road project… When a private (foreign) company stands to make a fortune on the backs of North Carolina’s taxpayers and our officials open the door to them, there is only one explanation and it ain’t pretty
My family and I always supported Pat and have even made calls for him during his elections. He has lost us all. Is he getting some sort of kickback for this huge tax hike on a few 100,000 people?
Horrible idea. Hope he doesn’t end up in a cell next to the old Mayor of Charlotte.
This Toll fiasco gets more nuts by the day. This thing stopped making sense 2 an a half years ago and it continues to spiral further out of control. And to read about public information sessions – yeah to listen to the load of crap, but any logic based questions were and remain answered with half truths and wishy washy nonsense. Now you want to be able to change the law to recover court costs when citizens sue you for valid cause. I don’t know, maybe they should just build a fence around NCLEG, Gov mansion and NCDOT and call it a prison because it’s feeling like there is a LOT OF GUILT being hidden.
The corruption and hubris of McCrory and Tillis is blatant. They may run but they can’t hide. I suspect that it was planned for McCrory to be a one term Governor. Neither Robin Hayes nor Claude Pope ever explained why Roy Cooper was allowed to run unopposed for re-election as Attorney General. What a coincidence that he’s now running for Governor.
It shows what a great state North Carolina is and what great businesses we have here and what great engineering and finance students when produce that we have to hire a company from another country to manage and build our roads…. This should be NC theme song for all future job recruitment – this should be case study we share with anyone wanting to move here to live or relocate their business
Had they not robbed and robbed and robbed from the highway trust fund for years and years then there would be plenty of taxpayers money available to maintain our road system but for years and years all we have heard its for the children its for the children it is for the children while or money is washed down the drain
Patrick — our government is spending about $250k for tolls with a corrupt Spanish company when $100k would widen I77 where it’s needed. They aren’t doing this because there’s no money; they are doing this because it’s a way to get you and me out of our cars and into mass transit. We don’t have a money problem in NC, we have an ethics problem.
I am in total agreement and I am sorry my previous comment was not clear enough to convey your point but as a side note the ethics problem is not just a NC problem but one the extends across this hole nation
You’re right, Patrick, this happening in many states. Meanwhile, Obama is pushing a plan to turn existing interstates into toll roads so that the government can price us out of our cars and track our driving habits and whereabouts with transponders. This is not just an I-77 issue, 9 toll projects are authorized for NC, and billions of our state money will end up in the hands of foreign tolling companies.
McCrory, Tennyson, Tate and Tollus, need to be an an old car with no radio, no a/c for a week, restricted to driving up and down I77 from 19 to 31 all day long. Every day, 6 am to 8 pm, counting semis. For 7days, and they must stay at a hotel next to the freeway with the window opened at night. Every night for seven nights. Maybe then they wil, get it. It’s a truck problem and the toll roads won’t fix a thing. Give us four GP lanes. Plan for a truck route around the lake, not through it
There is so much dirt in this deal it is hard to even know where to start. I won’t delve into the various NCDOT fantasies, but let’s suffice to say they are a plenty. You could not set out today and come up with a worse deal than this for the citizens of North Mecklenburg. The psychopathic supporters of this road are nuts with their greed and corruption, and even worse, they will look you straight in the eye as they curtain climb their way to whatever selfish reward they intend to claim. Someone should grab this story and make a mini-series, because all of the elements are there.
This whole thing smacks of crony capitalism, quid pro quo, graft and corruption for the get go
A stellar example of why P3’s can’t be trusted. They’re sold as a panacea to taxpayers when in fact they turn out the opposite. They are never transparent and that shiny gleaming top of the iceberg is touted as the best and greatest solution to the problem. It’s all that hard ice below consisting of graft, corruption, quid pro quo, power brokering, you name it that is so dangerous.
This whole lurid clusterf*** is gonna leave a mark that hurts on Senator Thom, Gov Pat and the NCGA Republicans. Don’t doubt me.