Business week reports today that public toll roads, bridges, and other infrastructure projects are being sold off or leased to private investors hungry for the steady, non-competitive income streams.
The advantages are clear: the public gets the money to pay off debt, and the investors and their private managers can make business decisions, from raising toll rates to implementing differential peak period tolls to outsourcing labor, free from fear of voter backlash.
The disadvantages are also clear: the private investors, free from ballot box pressures, can milk the infrastructure assets for all they are worth while letting them run down in the long run.
Keep an eye on this!
Saturday, April 28, 2007
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2 comments:
Yes, "our man Mitch" (Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana) sold off the Indiana toll road for big bucks to an international consortium. We got the money now, but...
The airwaves were first. Then the public utilities. Since that has gone so well...
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