January 22, 2007
Selling off the future
(By the way, please don't miss the CAMPO Phase II meeting tonight at 6:00. Directions are here or here)
The KC InfoZine (viaSomervell County Salon) has a great article up about what's really going on with toll roads and 'innovative finance'. It's nothing more than government selling off assets as quickly as they can so that they don't have to raise taxes.
Several big deals were consummated in 2006, even as a resurgent economy and the return of surpluses gave most states a respite from penny-pinching. Another form of easy money - tax revenues from legalized gambling - also is helping to keep state coffers brimming. And states, like credit card-crazed shoppers, are borrowing more money than ever through the bond markets.The prize of cash upfront is what's driving the new phenomenon of states marketing public assets to private corporations....
Critics argue that private firms are apt to jack up tolls and fees because they have to keep investors, not voters, happy. Others worry that states will fritter away the upfront money.
In Texas, the spendthrift Republicans are selling off the assets before they've even been built. Maybe that is the 'innovative' thing about the financing. Why be honest with the citizens of this state about the need for taxes and the utilization of them to expand and maintain the infrastructure on which our economy depends? It's so much easier to sell off the assets paid for with tax dollars for a one-time windfall that can be used to buy candy for the populace and put off the day when the world crashes down around us.
Posted by mcblogger at January 22, 2007 04:01 PM
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