Privatizing the Bridges
posted by TheDon

Atlanta hate-yakker, Neal Boortz, has another in a seemingly endless series of brilliant ideas coming from the E. coli Republicans and their Libertarian enablers . Let's privatize all the bridges and roads! No more tax money needed for building roads and bridges! No more tax money for maintenance! Yeah!

Here's a concept that Congress hasn't though of ... if there is a problem with infrastructure, why not let the private sector fix it! Or maybe Congress did think about that response but refuses to ignore it, because it would take away their power. That's probably a more likely scenario.

The costs of overhauling US infrastructure are astronomical. Texas estimates having to spend $100 billion just to keep up with growth, mush less maintain existing roads. And Oregon estimates $1.3 billion a year. Each state has similarly startling figures.
In Indiana governor Mitch Daniels decided that he wasn't going to sit around and wait for federal subsidies or increase taxes on his constituents. Needing a quick $3 billion for his state's transportation needs, he decided to auction off the rights to the Indiana Toll Road. It's so very simple. Auction off the rights to the road and, in essence, you have the private sector paying .. big bucks .. for the right to collect tolls on those roads ... or bridges. Right now 23 states currently have laws to allow public-private deals of this type.

Democrats aren't too happy. Democratic congressman Peter DeFazio of Oregon says that Indiana is "giving away" a valuable taxpayer asset. No, Congressman .. Indiana is giving away noting. Indiana is considering selling a state-owned asset to private enterprise for a price! Perhaps that price will even include a revenue-sharing agreement with the state whereby Indiana will still collect revenues from the tolls, but will have absolutely no responsibility for maintenance and repair! Sounds like a pretty good deal from my side of this computer screen.

There's a tiny little problem with this "logic". If it's going to cost Texas $100B to keep up with growth, you're not going to lower the costs by having a private company do it, you're going to add a layer (or several) of profit, including the inevitable Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous CEO salary. Neal is fond of pointing out that corporations don't pay taxes, they just pass them on. It seems that he would realize that they don't spend money on projects, they simply pass the costs to their customers - in this case, the tax-payers who use the roads and bridges.

And if you think Minnesota was lax in performing bridge maintenance, imagine the mindset of a company which could cut their bonuses to upgrade a bridge, OR they could bank the money and bid on the replacement project when the current one collapses. In the end it will cost taxpayers more and be less reliable. Brilliant solution, Neal, just brilliant! Next you'll use your intellect and compassion (which you seem to have in equal amounts) to fix the tax code! Oh, yeah...