Infrastructure

Ontario, Calif., officials now say that the $50 million payment they offered to Los Angeles for LA/Ontario International Airport was only part of a $250 million package the city offered to transfer title and operations of its airport, according to published reports.

CHICAGO — Missouri transportation officials are seeking legislative authority to turn Interstate 70 into a toll road to fund a $2 billion to $4 billion rebuilding and expansion of the aging highway, possibly through a pubic-private partnership.

While members of Congress have been loathe to take the politically unpopular step of raising the federal gas tax, which provides revenue for bond-financed roadwork and other highway projects, a number of states have increased their gas taxes during the past few years.

Two Kentucky senators are co-sponsoring a bill that would ban tolls on existing Interstates, according to the Courier-Journal.

The Georgia Legislature is considering a $300 million infusion of additional gas tax funds to shore up funding to build the first phase of the West by Northwest traffic-congestion relief project around Atlanta.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich defended his push to privatize the Ohio Turnpike and called for the proposal's critics to "chill out" during his annual state of the state address Tuesday afternoon.

Local Democratic officials from northeast Ohio who are opposed to Gov. John Kasich’s proposal to lease the Ohio Turnpike said last week they would launch their own study of the privatization plan.

The Senate Finance Committee Tuesday approved by a vote of 17-6, a transportation revenue measure that would increase the limit for bank-qualified bonds and exempt private-activity bonds from the alternative minimum tax through this year as well as authorize state infrastructure banks to issue tax-credit bonds for transportation.

The Senate gave final approval to a four-year reauthorization bill for the Federal Aviation Administration, failing to increase available funds for bond-financed airport construction projects but bringing about much-needed stability following five years of short-term extensions and partisan gridlock.

With its major tenant, American Airlines, in bankruptcy, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport is taking advantage of low interest rates and a favorable tax ruling in a $450 million refunding.