Want to buy an airport? How about a highway? Now you can. Cities and States across the country are siphoning off roads, tunnels, bridges, electricity supply facilities, mass transit, rail transportation, airports, ports, waterways, water supply facilities, recycling and wastewater treatment facilities, solid waste disposal facilities, housing, schools, prisons, and hospitals, just to name a few – and our elected officials are encouraging it.
Reeling from massive budget deficits, states and cities are increasingly looking to selling or leasing vital transportation infrastructure to private companies, and most of them happen to be foreign interests.
After decades of letting America’s infrastructure slip through the cracks - the levees in New Orleans and last August’s I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis provide devastating examples – American infrastructure is in need of a massive facelift and we can’t afford the medical bills.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, it will cost the U.S $1.6 trillion to repair our ailing and deteriorating infrastructure. In the midst of the country’s current economic meltdown, the likelihood of investing in infrastructure anytime in the immediate future appears nil. Without the funds necessary to revitalize a crucial industry, the Department of Transportation has been encouraging the succession of American infrastructure to free markets.
In case state and local government officials don’t know exactly how to siphon off their roads and bridges on their own, EuroMoney Seminars, a UK-based company, holds seminars for these officials to learn how to lease their public assets.
Currently there are $25 billion worth of public-private highway deals being planned. More than 20 states have already passed legislation that allows public-private partnerships to run highways. Recently Indiana’s House approved a proposal to lease the 157- mile Indiana Toll Road for $3.85 billion to Spain’s Cintra, and Australia’s Macquarie bank.
America will soon be paying foreign interests for the privilege of driving on our roads. Americans paid the taxes on these infrastructures, and now they are being dropped into the hands of private entities. The Dubai Ports Fiasco aptly highlights the sour taste these kinds of acquisitions are leaving in American mouths.
Obviously America needs to invest in our failing infrastructure soon and with deep pockets, and consequently now might be the perfect time to do it As the economy spirals out of control, a national infrastructure initiative could provide the jumpstart our economy is increasingly looking for.
According to the executive director of the American Association of State Highways and Transportation Officials there are more than 3,000 ready-to-go infrastructure projects sitting on the backburner. America needs to invest its money into its crumbling infrastructure now. By privatizing these assets, state and local governments seem to be focusing on the short-term monetary rewards. Yet they are ignoring the problematic fact that Americans will be paying tolls to foreign proprietors for generations to come.
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