karen marie, my point is that if your state constitution or city charter says that you cannot run a deficit, and your tax base has just cratered, and the bond market is dead, you still have to get money for needed services, now. Absent money from the federal government, a city or state government is obligated, by law (we're still a nation of laws, mostly ;) ) to either sell assets, raise taxes to stupid levels, or declare bankruptcy. So what is happening now isn't due to the sudden resolution of local political arguments over the merits of private investment in public utilities.

What is happening, in towns, cities and colleges across the nation, is a republican dream. And it is being, and has been, allowed to occur with a democratic controlled congress who've refused to even bother for a fight to tide over city and state budgets through this downturn. Since the reason for stimulus is maintain jobs, the first thing congress ought to have done was to save present government paid-for jobs, rather than ignoring that problem, and trying to create completely new government paid-for jobs (of perhaps dubious value — as republicans gleefully, and with some justification, argue). Right now, were spending money by the truckload and too little of it in areas that provide immediate value for citizens. A republican is going to ask "your government is spending truckloads of yours and your children's children's money: Wall street got their share, but, while your city is crumbling about you, what have you seen of it?", and a typical citizen is probably going to answer, in a justifiably angry rage: "nothing: turf these bums out!"

Obama needs to force his democratic congress to pass a new stimulus bill which is focused on state and city aid. OF COURSE it matters what sort of aid states and cities get. Democrats own all the problems now. But they have at their disposal, more power than the world has ever seen to try to solve them. Whatever happens now, it's their fault.

it's mutual masturbation with your money by those who "know better."

This is something that can be laid squarely on the republican party's feet, along with the gormless section of democrats. Local government shrinking to next to nothing is the hard-core republican's dream, and Obama is allowing it to come true under his watch. More targeted stimulus is needed yesterday. Obama needs to dress down congress, and argue for them doing things his way. He won. They (all of congress) lost.

And the deal for Midway, in delicious bit of irony, has collapsed due to the fact that the purchasers could not secure adequate credit for the deal because of the recent credit crunch.

So the state was in the black on the toll road. By doubling the tolls (and slashing the labor costs of whatever human workers are still required) you can imagine how healthy the private group's profit will be, especially if they shirk on maintenance.

If the state was willing to accept doubling all of the tolls it made far more sense to keep the road, double the tolls, and pocket the profit.

But the Spanish corporation offered a big check NOW! That, apparently, is way better.

To put in perspective, assuming that tolls rose at the rate of inflation (i.e., not including the private company's hiking of the fees), this is the exact equivalent of selling $75 for 4 bucks. That is a 1,875% profit for the company. Nearly two thousand percent! That's really seriously in payday loanshark territory.

Either
a) The government here is just un-the-fuck-believably beyond stupid
b) The setup as explained is omitting some enormous factors, such as the private company spending its own money to maintain the roads and assume other expenses. And even then, running roads and a few toll booths can't be THAT expensive.

That's the question that is not asked often enough in debates about privatization: are the users of the utility in question willing to accept that privatization means quality will degrade and costs will rise? (And of course quality will degrade and costs will rise. If the people in charge care first about making money, and second about running the utility, how else are things going to go?)

But in regards to roads and parking: both of these have been so massively subsidized in America for so long that almost no one realizes the true cost of either thing. The true legacy of the Eisenhower administration: Americans take it for granted that the government will spend uncounted billions to build and maintain gold-plated roads and parking facilities. At some point, that's going to have to change. I don't like private toll roads, but I do like public toll roads, where the revenue is used to maintain the road minimally and also to build and maintain mass transit.