Back in December Gov. John Kasich and ODOT Director Jerry Wray rolled out the results of the KPMG analysis and their plan for “unlocking the value” of the Ohio Turnpike.  As part of their plan, Kasich said that they would leverage Ohio Turnpike tolls to float bonds to finance highway construction projects throughout Ohio. As part of this announcement, ODOT said, “more than 90 percent of new bond money will go directly to northern Ohio highway projects.”  KPMG, the consultants that Governor Kasich paid to carry out the analysis of turnpike, said  “virtually all Turnpike funds go to Northern Ohio.” Even prior to the KPMG analysis, Kasich said  “’We’ll make the commitment that at least half the proceeds from a lease or bond would mean we put at least half the money on roads that are north of Route 30. We think that is a fair thing,’” Sounds like a pretty solid promise to continue to dedicate Turnpike funds to Northern Ohio, right? Not so fast. [Read more…]