Detroit Free Press
Already locked in litigation, Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel (Matty) Moroun, and the Michigan Department of Transportation have found yet another issue to disagree on.
That issue is the local match that MDOT must come up with to qualify for federal highway funds. Short of cash, MDOT estimates it will have to forgo $475 million in federal aid for roads and bridges in 2011 because it lacks about $84 million in local matching funds.
Moroun said he can help. Federal law allows MDOT to count private investment in certain projects as the 20% local match for U.S. aid. Moroun said he has invested roughly $400 million in work on his bridge since the 1990s that could qualify. If accepted by U.S. highway authorities, that could bring in about $1.6 billion in federal aid in coming years.
The private investment is known as "toll credits" because the work was done on a tolled bridge. MDOT in the past has used toll credits generated by three publicly owned bridges -- the Blue Water Bridge, the Mackinac Bridge and the International Bridge at Sault Ste. Marie -- to match federal aid to pay for local bus systems and the like.
Toll credits are used widely by other states as well.
But MDOT balks at using Moroun's toll credits. For one thing, MDOT spokesman Bill Shreck said, Moroun has never presented a full accounting of his investment at the bridge -- something he would have to do for his toll credits to qualify as a match for federal aid.
That issue is the local match that MDOT must come up with to qualify for federal highway funds. Short of cash, MDOT estimates it will have to forgo $475 million in federal aid for roads and bridges in 2011 because it lacks about $84 million in local matching funds.
Moroun said he can help. Federal law allows MDOT to count private investment in certain projects as the 20% local match for U.S. aid. Moroun said he has invested roughly $400 million in work on his bridge since the 1990s that could qualify. If accepted by U.S. highway authorities, that could bring in about $1.6 billion in federal aid in coming years.
The private investment is known as "toll credits" because the work was done on a tolled bridge. MDOT in the past has used toll credits generated by three publicly owned bridges -- the Blue Water Bridge, the Mackinac Bridge and the International Bridge at Sault Ste. Marie -- to match federal aid to pay for local bus systems and the like.
Toll credits are used widely by other states as well.
But MDOT balks at using Moroun's toll credits. For one thing, MDOT spokesman Bill Shreck said, Moroun has never presented a full accounting of his investment at the bridge -- something he would have to do for his toll credits to qualify as a match for federal aid.
"When they've offered in the past, they've never, ever submitted the forms," he said.
Another problem is that toll credits are "like Monopoly money," Shreck said. They provide a match on paper but don't provide actual cash. So if they triggered the 80% federal funding, MDOT would still be 20% short of full funding for any given project.
There are other disagreements, but the biggest divide is MDOT's support for other bridges that compete -- or would compete -- with the Ambassador Bridge. In a recent interview, Moroun cited MDOT's twinning of the Blue Water Bridge in the 1990s, and its support for the proposed Detroit River International Crossing bridge in southwest Detroit as MDOT's attempts to siphon off up to 75% of Moroun's toll revenue.
Moroun criticized MDOT's role in the DRIC project, a proposed publicly owned bridge less than two miles downstream from the Ambassador Bridge, as "absolutely a tremendous waste of money."
Moroun's position: He'll allow his toll credits to be used as a local match for federal aid only if MDOT promises not to use that money to support competing bridge projects.
"We've said we'll give those to you when you demonstrate that you're not going to use this money against us," said Mickey Blashfield, head of government relations for Moroun.
This disagreement over toll credits takes place against the backdrop of Moroun's years-long feud with MDOT over rival bridge projects. Today, attorneys for MDOT and Moroun are expected to go before Wayne County Circuit Judge Prentis Edwards for a hearing on Moroun's lawsuit that is attempting to block MDOT's participation in DRIC.
Carmine Palombo, director of transportation for the Southeast Michigan Council on Governments, said Moroun and MDOT need to call a truce.
"I have been trying to suggest that they need to sit down and talk because it's just going to escalate," Palombo said. "The state can't afford this, financially or any other which way you look at it."
Another problem is that toll credits are "like Monopoly money," Shreck said. They provide a match on paper but don't provide actual cash. So if they triggered the 80% federal funding, MDOT would still be 20% short of full funding for any given project.
There are other disagreements, but the biggest divide is MDOT's support for other bridges that compete -- or would compete -- with the Ambassador Bridge. In a recent interview, Moroun cited MDOT's twinning of the Blue Water Bridge in the 1990s, and its support for the proposed Detroit River International Crossing bridge in southwest Detroit as MDOT's attempts to siphon off up to 75% of Moroun's toll revenue.
Moroun criticized MDOT's role in the DRIC project, a proposed publicly owned bridge less than two miles downstream from the Ambassador Bridge, as "absolutely a tremendous waste of money."
Moroun's position: He'll allow his toll credits to be used as a local match for federal aid only if MDOT promises not to use that money to support competing bridge projects.
"We've said we'll give those to you when you demonstrate that you're not going to use this money against us," said Mickey Blashfield, head of government relations for Moroun.
This disagreement over toll credits takes place against the backdrop of Moroun's years-long feud with MDOT over rival bridge projects. Today, attorneys for MDOT and Moroun are expected to go before Wayne County Circuit Judge Prentis Edwards for a hearing on Moroun's lawsuit that is attempting to block MDOT's participation in DRIC.
Carmine Palombo, director of transportation for the Southeast Michigan Council on Governments, said Moroun and MDOT need to call a truce.
"I have been trying to suggest that they need to sit down and talk because it's just going to escalate," Palombo said. "The state can't afford this, financially or any other which way you look at it."
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