Partnership to Save Highway Communities Urges Senate EPW Leaders to Maintain Commercialization Ban

ALEXANDRIA, Va.--The Partnership to Save Highway Communities yesterday urged the leadership of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) to maintain the prohibition on commercial activity along the Interstate right-of-way in the upcoming extension of the current highway reauthorization law.

In a letter addressed to Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the Partnership cautioned that allowing state governments to compete with private businesses for the services of Interstate motorists risks thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tax revenues. The Partnership advocated that the EPW Committee preserve the current ban, which has been in place for nearly 50 years and successfully helped establish vibrant communities along America’s Interstate system.

“In these difficult economic times, such a policy change could further damage the economies of small cities and towns across the country that rely on Interstate traffic to sustain their local communities,” the Partnership wrote. “Allowing state-run rest areas to compete … on an unfair playing field will remove a valuable component to the economic development of the counties and towns.”

In recent weeks, several states, including Virginia, New Hampshire and Vermont, have closed rest areas, citing budgetary shortfalls. Some state officials have discussed the prospects of commercializing Interstate rest stop areas as a potential means of preserving these facilities. The Partnership to Save Highway Communities believes this is a short-sighted approach that ultimately will destroy thousands of businesses located off the Interstate exit ramps.

More than 60,000 businesses successfully operate along the nation’s Interstates as a result of the commercialization ban. Studies show that commercializing state facilities would cut business to the private entities in half. What’s more, these businesses generate billions of dollars in annual sales at Interstate exists nationwide. In many rural communities they contribute the largest percentage of sales tax and property tax revenues used to fund public schools and local police and fire departments. At the rest areas themselves, more than 600 blind business owners earn a living and support their families servicing rest stop vending operations.

Alternatives to closing state-run rest areas exist. Oregon, for example, recently implemented the Interstate Oasis Program. The program helps states partner – rather than compete – with existing Interstate businesses to serve public needs at minimal cost.

Click here to read the letter. For more information, please visit the Partnership to Save Highway Communities’ website at www.jobsnextexit.com. A list of signors to the letter appears below:

The Partnership to Save Highway Communities

Association of Kentucky Fried Chicken Franchisees (AKFCF)
Blind Entrepreneurs Alliance
Brinker International (Chili’s, Maggiano’s and On the Border Restaurants)
Burger King Corporation
Coalition of Franchisee Associations
International Pizza Hut Franchise Holders Association
McDonald's Corporation
National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS)
National Association of Shell Marketers (NASM)
National Franchisee Association (Burger King Franchisees)
NATSO, Representing America’s Travel Plazas and Truckstops
OSI Restaurant Partners, LLC (Outback Steakhouse, Carrabba’s, Roy’s, Bonefish Grill and Fleming’s Restaurants)
Petroleum Marketers Association of America (PMAA)
Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America (SIGMA)
Star Franchise Association (Carl’s Jr. Franchisees)
Taco Bell Franchise Management Advisory Council
American Petroleum Institute (API)