Transportation Fight Begins Today
Transportation hearings (or, how the hell are we going to get out this mess, if you prefer) begin today, and we haven’t been this excited about a public meeting since the casino battle royale. The main event doesn’t take place until the 17th when the Joint Committee on Transportation Oversight Hearing on Tolls and Gas Tax takes place, but the opening act isn’t all that bad.
Today’s hearing is on the Joint Committee on Transportation Informational Hearing on Public-Private Partnerships, which means, essentially, leasing the Turnpike. Proponents say leasing the Pike means quick cash and a get out of debt free card. Opponents worry about rising tolls, and also if selling in a down economy would be a bad long-term investment.
Fortunately, we have an interesting test case to examine. (It goes without saying that our crack legislators have also done their due diligence here, right? Right.)
The city of Chicago is the leader in privatizing public assets. First, they leased Skyway (a major highway) for $1.83 billion, and then the city’s parking garages, and in October, Midway Airport. Yesterday, Chicago reached to deal to lease its parking meters. So, basically,The Windy City has turned into Crazy Eddie—everything must go!!!
Mayor Richard Daley had this to say at a news conference yesterday:
At the very time some cities and states are asking the federal government for help in balancing their budgets, we have creatively, working to protect our taxpayers for years to come.
But, is selling now, in a depressed economy a good move? The Chicago Reader offers an interesting analysis:
Of course, as (Alderman Thomas) Allen noted, once you grant this sort of lease on an asset—like the downtown parking garages, the Skyway, or Midway—it’s off the table for the next century. If the city gets into an even bigger crisis somewhere down the road, the mayor and aldermen, whoever they may be, will have lost a potential life preserver.
But that won’t be Mayor Daley’s problem. Let the next guy devise his own schemes.
Or as John Maynard Keynes said, “In the long run, we are all dead.”
The problem with Massachusetts is a discernable lack of schemes. As the Reader points out, Chicago was in a rush to sell Midway because the city was worried the Barack Obama administration would change the FAA rules (irony of all ironies), but here we are holding our first hearings in December.
We can’t wait.
