Deal to lease Pa. Turnpike to Spanish firm expires

The $12.8 billion bid to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike expired today, effectively ending current efforts to lease the toll road to a Spanish-U.S. consortium.

With the death of the leasing proposal and the recent rejection by the federal government of Pennsylvania's effort to place tolls on Interstate 80, the state now finds itself short of about $450 million it was counting on to pay for future transportation projects.

Legislative leaders had made it clear the lease proposal, supported by Gov. Rendell, was unlikely to be voted on during the current, election-shortened legislative session.

"We're not extending the bid," said James Courtovich, an adviser for the international consortium. "We want to keep an active engagement with the governor, but this offer is over."

Pennsylvania Transportation Partners, the consortium formed by Abertis Infraestructuras S.A. of Barcelona, Spain, and Citi Infrastructure Investors of New York, had agreed to pay the state $12.8 billion for the right to operate the turnpike for 75 years. Rendell estimated that payment could be invested to generate about $1 billion a year for transportation projects.

Rendell spokesman Chuck Ardo said today that the governor "remains committed to pursuing legislation to allow a lease of the turnpike. Should such legislation be enacted, it would be his hope to execute a lease with the Abertis/Citi team."

Supporters of the lease had hoped to gain more backing after last month's rejection by the Federal Highway Administration of the plan to toll I-80. Tolling I-80, the 311-mile interstate across northern Pennsylvania, was a core provision of a transportation funding law, Act 44, enacted by the legislature last year.

Without toll money from I-80, SEPTA and other mass-transit agencies stand to get $150 million a year less than anticipated, and highways and bridges will get $300 million a year less - a cut of 50 percent by 2010.

Legislators said they will look for ways to fill the $450 million gap next year.

Some proposals have included higher gas taxes, increased motor vehicle fees, higher transit fares, and tolls on roads that are now free. Tolls are already slated to rise by 25 percent on the Pennsylvania Turnpike next year.

Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Phila.), chairman of the House appropriations committee and the sponsor of the bill authorizing the lease of the turnpike, said an increase in the gas tax is politically unacceptable and fee and fare increases can't raise enough money.

"Nobody has any other ideas," Evans said today. "I still think leasing the turnpike is a viable option. If not them [Abertis-Citi], maybe someone else."

"I'm going to keep pushing. This is not finished," he said.

Contact staff writer Paul Nussbaum at 215-854-4587 or pnussbaum@phillynews.com