 |
 |
Should Private Companies Be Allowed To Own Our Roads?
By Rep. Jason Murphey
As a member of the House of Representative’s Transportation Committee I have been able to observe one of the most controversial but rarely talked about and mostly under the radar issues regarding the long term development of our highway system.
One year ago I wrote in my update about an the issue at the heart of which has been Oklahoma’s membership in a group known as the North America SuperCorridor Coalition (NASCO), the desire of big corporations to enhance the movement of Chinese-manufactured goods throughout North America, the possible privatization of new state and federal highways and NASCO’s desire to deploy sophisticated tracking devices along I-35.
In the past I written about what I believe to be the inappropriate and frightening alliance of big business monopolies backed up by the power of big government. Nowhere is this abuse more evident than when big companies buy long term leases of public roads. You can only imagine how your power as a citizen is minimized when a big (and likely foreign owned) corporation has complete control over a public road on which you depend in order to get where you need to go.
The issue of private ownership of public roads is in its infancy in Oklahoma but appeared to be growing after Texas planned out the construction of the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) network. The TTC was to be owned and financed over the next 50 years by a foreign investment group based in Spain known as Cintra. Read more…
Most of the interim studies have been heard, but I have one coming up on November 6th regarding the possibility of updates for voter rolls and notification to state agencies upon the death of an Oklahoman. The Department of Health does not currently share this information automatically and it would help a great deal for other agencies to know this information.
I remember seeing my grandmother’s name on the voter rolls after she had passed and thought this would be good to have the names removed so the family does not have to go through current channels. Should a name be mistakenly removed, provisional ballot would still be allowed so a vote will not be prohibited. I authored the bill that allowed provisional ballots here in Oklahoma. Read more…
Leave a comment