Legislator: Turnpike lease now ‘dead’

House overwhelmingly rejects 75-year lease offer

By SCOTT JOHNSON — sjohnson@lockhaven.com
HARRISBURG — The offer from a Spanish firm to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike — and likely prevent Interstate 80 from becoming a tolled road — is now “dead” after the House soundly rejected a measure to direct Gov. Ed Rendell to enter into a $12.8 billion, 75-year lease of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

“It is now a dead issue,” said House Transportation Committee Chairman Joseph Markosek, Monroeville, this morning. “There may be lawyers who may say we could do it, but in the realm of public opinion, it is a dead issue.”

The vote to defeat the measure was 185-12. Local Reps. Mike Hanna, D-Lock Haven, and Kerry Benninghoff, R-Bellefonte were among the 12 who voted in favor of the measure.

Hanna and Benninghoff could not be reached for comment this morning.

While Markosek said yesterday’s defeat of the lease proposal is not technically tied into the issue to toll I-80, the state planned to use the lease money, instead of I-80 toll revenue, to improve the state’s roads and bridges.

“This vote does not change the attempts by the Turnpike Commission to toll Interstate 80 (as approved last year in Act 44),” he said.

He said while the proposal would have leased the turnpike to the Spanish company Abertis Infraestructuras and a unit of Citigroup Inc., the term of the lease — 75 years — is tantamount to a sale.

“I personally do not like the idea of leasing a very valuable state asset over a multigenerational time period,” Markosek said. “I believe it is a bad policy decision no matter how much money you get for it.”

Markosek added while the Abertis bid was declared the “winner” by Gov. Ed Rendell — who supports the proposed lease — legislators were not shown the other bids.

“We had several other bids. (Abertis) was the winning bid, but I’m not even sure if it’s the highest bid,” he said.

“It disallows the governor from entering into this agreement, but he can solicit other bids,” Markosek said. “When we voted, we sent a loud message to the governor and others that the Legislature did not think it was a good deal... the Legislature does not want to sell valuable state assets and we were not happy with the process with which the governor’s office conducted these bids.”

The committee chairman said the main concern about the process was it’s “secrecy.”

“The governor sent requests for information out to interested bidders just to determine if there was interest in leasing the Pennsylvania Turnpike,” Markosek said. “We never got to see the bids as they came in. We still haven’t and, essentially, about a month ago, they announced the winner. We didn’t know any of that.”

Also, he noted Gov. Rendell authorized money out of the Motor License Fund to pay law firms to assist him in the leasing process.

“Many of us were not happy about that. That is money that could have been used for road and bridge work in Pennsylvania,” Markosek said.

The chairman said yesterday’s vote came as a surprise for him and many other lawmakers, as it was tacked on as an amendment to another bill by Rep. John Maher, R-Allegheny, who described it as “an opportunity to take a stand.”

“I found out about it yesterday morning,” Markosek said. “It was timely filed so it could be run yesterday.”

If passed, the legislation would have “mandated” the governor to sign the lease. Markosek said Rendell may still sign the lease, but yesterday’s action sends a message to him that it is a “dead issue.”

“We spoke loud and clear we were not interested in that,” he said.

Majority Whip Keith McCall, D-Carbon, said the size of the lease bid from Spanish company Abertis Infraestructuras and a unit of Citigroup Inc. was akin to giving away the roadway.

“It is just such a bad deal, it’s like a fire sale,” McCall said.

The Rendell administration, which supports the lease deal, was also opposed to Maher’s measure, saying the issue needed to be debated in a more open and exhaustive way.

House rules prohibit the chamber from taking up another version of a defeated measure before the next two-year legislative term begins in January, but lease supporters said different legislation that accomplishes the same result can still be considered.

Jim Courtovich, a spokesman for the bidding group, called the vote a political trick, but said the group remained optimistic that the General Assembly will give their offer a full airing after summer recess.

A House Transportation Committee hearing on the lease proposal is expected to be held next week.

Markosek said that hearing is still scheduled “as of this moment,” even though he believes the issue is done.

“Even though this deal is dead, it’s still important to get a lot of information out there about these deals and how these deals operate and he we can change the process in any future dealings like this,” he said. “We need to put a lot more sunshine on this whole process.”