I don't think many Ohioans have realized yet that Ken Blackwell's key "jobs" proposal, other than tax cuts, is to get a pot of development money by leasing`the Ohio Turnpike to a private operator. Blackwell models his idea on Chicago's recent 99-year lease of the Skyway and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels' proposal to lease the Toll Road for 75 years, to a pair of corporations from Australia and Spain, to raise money for other highway projects.
On Wednesday MaxSpeak linked to a Washington Post article about this trend that describes the hornet's nest stirred up by Daniels' deal ("Keep the Toll Road, lease Mitch!"). Max's own comment:
When a government takes a lump sum in exchange for permitting a private firm to manage a road and levy tolls, it is not only privatizing. It is borrowing, worsening its fiscal position. Most states are looking at growing budget shortfalls in the future, as Medicaid costs in particular continue to grow more rapidly than their revenues.As usual, there's a string of erudite reponses. Economists, ya know.
The Gov could just as easily contract out operations and management, but keep the tolls for itself. The fact that the money is earmarked to new projects -- investment -- is irrelevant. It's still borrowing. You could just as easily keep the roads and float a bond -- also borrowing -- for the new projects. The leasing is not necessary.
The buzz word for this kind of scheme, which entrances many Democrats like Chicago Mayor Daley as well as GOP privatizers like Blackwell, is "monetizing" public assets... which sounds better than "spending our future income now", I guess.