Independent Truckers Oppose PA. Interstate Sell-Off to "Foreign-Based Private Interests"

SPECIAL REPORT: OOIDA says privatization of interstates is ‘anti-American’

Dec. 1, 2006 – The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association is letting Pennsylvania officials know that leasing the state’s roads to private companies is not only unacceptable, but un-American.

Proposals to sell the turnpike to private companies is a wrong-headed idea and to consider selling this national asset to foreign companies even more so, OOIDA Executive Vice President Todd Spencer said.

He called the privatization proposal by Rep. Richard Geist, R-Altoona, a “choreographed campaign being driven by foreign-based private interests.”

“The idea of selling the turnpike may sound good to some opportunistic politicians thinking in the here and now,” Spencer said, “but it certainly would not be a yellow brick road for the highway’s users who will be paying exorbitant tolls for years to come or for Pennsylvanians who will see those tolls translate into higher prices at the checkout counter and more congestion on the commonwealth’s other highways.”

Read more here.