Questions to be Researched

Taxes-

• Would the tax commission's recommendations eliminate the ability for publbic utilities to write-off state real and personal property tax assessments?
• If public utilities would have to pay the full tax assessment amounts, would they petition the state tax departments to have their assessments reduced?
• If public utility taxes were further reduced, what effect would that have upon local and school government agencies reliant upon those taxes?
• Under the Multimodalways proposal, real property tax assessments would be eliminated and replaced by tolls, none of which would fund local and school government agencies. How would that elimination affect those government agencies?
• Would increased access to Multimodalways projects subsequently increase adjacent private property ownership by users and beneficiaries, thus increasing personal, corporate, and industrial tax assessments and their benefits to local and school government agencies?
• Are tax abatements

Insurance-

• After the hurricanes in the Southern U.S., insurance companies have announced they will cease providing coverage to property owners in that region. How would their decision affect public utilities?
• Would the states or federal government have to subsidize insurance for public utilities?
• Would the federal government consider a public natural disaster insurance fund?

Sovereignty-

• If an international firm partly, wholly, or not controlled by an international government purchase ROW and/or infrastructure within the U.S., would the WTO be asked to become involved if a ROW and/or infrastructure problem arose between the international firm with a U.S. government agency or U.S. firm?
• Does the federal government prefer private or public funding for improving infrastructures, particularly international infrastructures?

Technical-

• To equally compare trucks to trains, equal business and government models must be used. What is the BTU consumption per hour of each modes' motive power to move the same tonnage load the same distance the same speed on a level surface?

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of this page; updated 11-7-2005