An Alternative Idea to Obama’s Infrastructure Bank

[Guest]

Our President, Barack Obama, is pushing the idea of ‘investing’ in infrastructure – primarily roads and bridges at taxpayer expense. I moved to Florida – in the Orlando area - forty years ago. At that time Florida was a relatively small state that had benefitted little from the Interstate Highway program. To say that the state had essentially no expressways would be kind.

There was no overall blueprint, but actions began. The state built a toll-road, the Florida Turnpike, using funds from tolls. The Orlando area built a beltway, (still to be finished) and cross county expressways. The Beeline, now Beach line, connecting Orlando to the east coach beaches was built.

The people who travel on them pay for these roads. No gas taxes, no general revenues and no other assists. The roads are continuously improved, the bridges maintained, consistently upgraded, the neighborhoods screened from noise, etc. The system works.

Why not does the same thing on a nationwide basis? Turn over the existing Interstate Highway system to private contractors to maintain and improve the roads on an ongoing basis. They get a fair return on their investment and we get good roads. The financial agreements with public utilities offer a basis for the drafting of these contracts.

We can have every bit of improvement envisioned under Obama’s plan and more by privatizing these highways. The people travelling on them will pay for them and those who do not will have nothing out of their pockets.

[Guest]

Our President, Barack Obama, is pushing the idea of ‘investing’ in infrastructure – primarily roads and bridges at taxpayer expense. I moved to Florida – in the Orlando area - forty years ago. At that time Florida was a relatively small state that had benefitted little from the Interstate Highway program. To say that the state had essentially no expressways would be kind.

There was no overall blueprint, but actions began. The state built a toll-road, the Florida Turnpike, using funds from tolls. The Orlando area built a beltway, (still to be finished) and cross county expressways. The Beeline, now Beach line, connecting Orlando to the east coach beaches was built.

The people who travel on them pay for these roads. No gas taxes, no general revenues and no other assists. The roads are continuously improved, the bridges maintained, consistently upgraded, the neighborhoods screened from noise, etc. The system works.

Why not does the same thing on a nationwide basis? Turn over the existing Interstate Highway system to private contractors to maintain and improve the roads on an ongoing basis. They get a fair return on their investment and we get good roads. The financial agreements with public utilities offer a basis for the drafting of these contracts.

We can have every bit of improvement envisioned under Obama’s plan and more by privatizing these highways. The people travelling on them will pay for them and those who do not will have nothing out of their pockets.

It makes sense. That's why you won't see it happen nationwide.

[Guest]

...Turn over the existing Interstate Highway system to private contractors to maintain and improve the roads on an ongoing basis. They get a fair return on their investment and we get good roads....This sounds like a good idea, but there's too much real evidence to the contrary. Try looking at how the public likes the long-term lease of the Chicago Skyway or the Indiana Toll Road. See what Chicagoans have to say about the leasing of all the parking meters in the city. Is everyone around the country happy with the cost and level of service of private garbage collection? There are whole towns going broke with infrastructure projects "arranged" by the private sector.

Read the following article and view the video on Sandy Springs, Georgia, a town that tried to privatize almost everything. It has turned out to be a disaster. The investment bankers and private service providers have made out swell. The residents? Nowhere near as good.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/22/sandy-springs-georgia-privatize-outsource_n_852466.html

[Guest]

This sounds like a good idea, but there's too much real evidence to the contrary. Try looking at how the public likes the long-term lease of the Chicago Skyway or the Indiana Toll Road. See what Chicagoans have to say about the leasing of all the parking meters in the city. Is everyone around the country happy with the cost and level of service of private garbage collection? There are whole towns going broke with infrastructure projects "arranged" by the private sector.

Read the following article and view the video on Sandy Springs, Georgia, a town that tried to privatize almost everything. It has turned out to be a disaster. The investment bankers and private service providers have made out swell. The residents? Nowhere near as good.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/22/sandy-springs-georgia-privatize-outsource_n_852466.html

Your post is puzzling to me. I carefully read the article and watched the video. From these, it appears that Sandy Springs is getting state-of-the-art services at a reduced cost. The city has no unfunded pension liabilities and is being used as a model by other municipalities. What disaster are you referring to?

The Indiana Toll Road appears to be a tremendous success according to Governor Daniels, one of the most popular and effective governors in the United States.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORDBc1wkGyI

Economic improvement seems to flow from privatization of infrastructure. Looks successful to me.

[Guest]

Your post is puzzling to me. I carefully read the article and watched the video. From these, it appears that Sandy Springs is getting state-of-the-art services at a reduced cost. The city has no unfunded pension liabilities and is being used as a model by other municipalities. What disaster are you referring to?

The Indiana Toll Road appears to be a tremendous success according to Governor Daniels, one of the most popular and effective governors in the United States.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORDBc1wkGyI

Economic improvement seems to flow from privatization of infrastructure. Looks successful to me.

I'm glad you said that BBQMan, as I was puzzled, too.

[Guest]

The reason privatization almost never works can be summed in in one word-GREED. :(

[Guest]

the reason privatization almost never works can be summed in in one word-greed. :(

huh? Are you implying that government can get the jobs done on time, with good quality at a fair price better then the companies owned and operated by citizens?

[Guest]

It seems if the building and maintaining of our infrastructure were to be turned over to private enterprise it would eliminate the need to have five workers gathered around watching one worker dig a hole, cost over runs would belong to the contractor and employee compensation and benefits would be the contractors problem.

The down side of all of this is that we would be relying on the same sort of government purchasing agent who thinks a $300 hammer is a good deal:D

[Guest]

I believe the argument is that if you TOTALLY turn it over to the private sector, then they will be beholden to their SHAREHOLDERS. That is one element government doesn't have to pay for. In the private model, the shareholders can vote to hike the tolls for the purpose of hiking profits even if the road is perfectly maintained.

[Guest]

DP, This is why I suggested using the familiar public utility pattern as a framework for the contracts. They have worked well in meeting both the needs of the public and shareholders in the vast majority of cases. Had the government owned the telephone companies, we would still have party lines and operator connected calls in the interest of preserving public union jobs.

As noted in the discussion about GWB tolls, the idea of improving efficiency in delivery of services at a lower cost is not always popular.

[Guest]

Your post is puzzling to me. I carefully read the article and watched the video. From these, it appears that Sandy Springs is getting state-of-the-art services at a reduced cost. The city has no unfunded pension liabilities and is being used as a model by other municipalities. What disaster are you referring to?

The Indiana Toll Road appears to be a tremendous success according to Governor Daniels, one of the most popular and effective governors in the United States.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORDBc1wkGyI

Economic improvement seems to flow from privatization of infrastructure. Looks successful to me.I'm sorry BBQ...and my apologies to the rest of you, as well. I made the mistake of not doing enough independent research, something I've encouraged everyone here to do.

The thoughts that I arrived at relative to privatization came from a recent meeting of the Civil Discourse club here in TV. I am aware, of course, of the problems that have been encountered with the Chicago parking meters, the Chicago Skyway, the Indiana Toll Road, etc. Those problems--the rapid and dramatic increase in tolls and costs to the taxpayer, and the now-reported unbelieveable returns being "earned" by the private sector on those deals--I know first hand. But I recall some discussion of Sandy Springs during the recent meeting, which I recalled as being very negative. There were other contributors in the meeting. One, a retired employee, related the disastrous experiment with outsourcing building maintenance at one of the big upstate New York state universities and how the deal had to be reversed at great expense to the college.

I recall during the discussion in the meeting being irritated that in some of the examples that didn't work, the taxpayers weren't benefitted as they expected and the investors and investment bankers who put the deals together "got rich and got out". The Chicago parking meter deal was particularly egregious. I remember thinking that relying on elected officials and civil servants to negotiate deals with investment bankers was a mismatch of the first order.

But in response to the criticism of my post above, on doing the independent research I've recommended to all, I've found that the Sandy Springs example is actually a positive one. I'm sorry again to have been misleading. I promise never to make that mistake again.

[Guest]

The reason privatization almost never works can be summed in in one word-GREED. :(

And the reason the executive and legislative branches of our federal government in Washington are not working "can be summed up in one word - GREED". Yes, GREED.....for political power.

Nobody has explained yet where this is wrong:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p31-xQ2Rrz4