The usual concern under traditional public provision is that user fees are set too low because politicians fear voters. Another concern is that groups with effective lobbying power-such as truckers, in the case of highways-are often charged less than the cost of the damage and congestion they cause.9
Evidence exists that PPPs have helped maintain the real value of user fees in the face of inflation. Tolls for the Indiana Toll Road remained unchanged in nominal terms for more than twenty years under state ownership and management; in real terms, they fell substantially. When the road was auctioned as a PPP in January 2006, however, tolls doubled and were indexed to inflation, because potential private firm concessionaires were unwilling to bear inflation risk for seventy-five years. Other states, among them Florida, Pennsylvania, and Texas, have since adopted toll indexation for their projects. However, the rise in tolls in Indiana led to the introduction of a shadow toll (a payment from the government to the firm linked to usage of the project). Hence, a PPP does not totally solve the problem of low tolls due to political pressure.