Toll Road Agencies Hire Lobbyists, Violate Law

by Editor of TheNewspaper.com

The tolls motorists pay in Pennsylvania and Texas
often go to buy influence in Washington, DC.
Texas lobbying effort may violate state law.

Toll road authorities across the country are taking the money collected from motorists and handing it to lobbyists hired to convince federal and state officials to expand tolling and protect the agencies' parochial interests. The toll road hired guns urged federal officials to add toll booths to existing freeways, including Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania and Interstates 10, 27 and 35 in Texas. Texas tolling officials may even have violated the law in their effort.

"Lobbying firms that specialize in working for local municipalities routinely boast on their websites how much return they can bring in, as one way to justify their costs," Center for Responsive Politics analyst Julia Pflaum wrote in an October study of public lobbying.

Pflaum listed the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission as the fourth biggest spender of public money on lobbyists, based on data provided in public disclosure forms. According to the figures, the Turnpike spent $280,000 in toll money last year to buy the influence needed to bring coveted federal earmarks to boost the Turnpike's budget and to convince state legislators to authorize a significant toll hike. Payments of between $200,000 and $20,000 went to lobby shops including the American Continental Group; Borski Associates; Baker, Donelson et al; and Hill Solutions. Similar spending reported over the past decade amounted to $2,030,000 in direct lobbying expenses. This represents more than a quarter of the total amount spent by the entire Pennsylvania state government on lobbying, but it does not represent the full amount of toll dollars diverted from improving the roads to influence peddling.

Read the rest of the article, which talks about TxDOT, Ted Houghton and Sal Costello HERE.