Different shoe, same stink.

BTW - Check out this interview with House Transportation Committee Chair, Rep. Paul Opsommer.

PO: I don't think Canada knows itself if the offer will ultimately be real, but I do know 100% now it is not a gift. It has to be paid back. We had so much political theater with that last year, with Governor Granholm coming in all out of breath with the fax from Canada in her hand, hot of the press. It came across so staged that it was hard not to be immediately suspicious of it. I still believe that we will see some Canadian private partner at the end of the day that will financially benefit from the DRIC, whether it is one of their pension funds or public benefit corporations as an operator or major investor.

If that is the case, and the Canadian government can benefit from the profits of the bridge for the next century or more, then a $550 million loan up front would still be small potatoes and in their best interests. They view the loan then as an inducement for us and as icing on the cake so to speak, and now they want to try to put icing on top of the icing. For example, some are now saying we can use the $550 million to match federal funds. But that is thus far just a verbal commitment. I want to be able to see that in writing from the feds. So far I have not been able to get that from MDOT.

And on top of that there are other ways we can address a shortfall in federal match dollars, so while I view that as nice I'm not going to let that drive the discussion. Michigan always has gotten less road dollars in comparison to other states, so in many ways this match money issue is something they should be giving us anyways.

At the end of the day this is a money issue, and this is a taxpayer protection issue, but it is not a budget issue for this cycle, so I don't see a need to get this all addressed by May 31st like some would want. My main goal is making sure that if toll revenue is not as high as anticipated that we don't have to pay for that with taxpayer dollars. And if toll revenue is not high enough and it goes bankrupt, I want to make sure some foreign bank or pension fund doesn't end up as the owner of a Michigan bridge.

It may just be me, but some of the stonewalling Rep. Opsommer is receiving from MDOT leads me to believe that this whole DRIC/NITC fiasco has a lot more to do with the Canadian government in cahoots with Canadian Pacific in leveraging the expansion of the Canadian preferred method of rail transportation then it has anything to do with building bridges.  If one looks at page 11 here, then overlays this, it kinda makes a lot of sense for the Canucks to loan-shark Michigan Taxpayers the $550 large.  With the DIFT sitting right there, their $550 is more or less a refunded entry fee for getting their choo-choo crossing in play.