MULTI-NATIONAL CORPORATIONS and BANKS, that's it!
"Leasing Pike may pay off, but at cost; Lawmakers cautious of a quick debt fix" by Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | December 3, 2008
Private investors from Australia and Spain paid the City of Chicago $1.83 billion for a 99-year lease on a toll bridge three years ago. The State of Indiana took in $3.8 billion for its main toll route. Governors in New York and Florida, desperate for cash, are considering similar deals.
Now, as Massachusetts ponders leasing the turnpike and the Big Dig tunnels to the highest bidder, questions are being raised about whether an abundant short-term gain would outweigh the long-term loss of one of the state's most valuable assets with the likelihood of frequent, incremental toll increases for decades to come.
Aren't our STATE GOVERNMENTS GRAND?
Btw, that is how we GOT INTO THIS MESS TO BEGIN WITH!!!!
Senator Steven A. Baddour, who will preside over a public legislative hearing on privatizing the turnpike today, believes that such a plan must be considered as the state tries to decide how to fund its financially troubled transportation agencies. He and other Senate leaders have proposed privatization as a way to minimize a recently proposed toll increase and avoid a gas tax hike.
Translation: You are going to get fucked either way, taxpayers, so drop trou and spread!
"If there's a way for the Commonwealth getting billions of dollars in up-front money that allows us to pay off the Big Dig debt and allows us to make a dent in the MBTA debt, we should at least take a look," said Baddour, a Methuen Democrat and cochairman of the Legislature's Joint Transportation Committee.
But many urge caution. Though popular in other parts of the world for decades, lease contracts on existing US highways have been limited to about a half-dozen very recent cases, whose full impact is unclear. Opponents worry about losing control of public property and point to deals with private firms that have soured in the past when desperate politicians failed to anticipate long-term risks.
Even proponents say lawmakers need to clearly understand what they want out of the partnerships and make sure they are getting good advice when they sit across the negotiating table from some of the world's most sophisticated multinational companies....
Why are BANKS and CORPORATIONS being allowed to CONTROL and LOOT the PEOPLE'S GOVERNMENT?
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The Patrick administration spoke with financial advisers and investment bankers early last year about the potential to lease the turnpike. But officials did not take the discussions further, in large part because of concerns about losing control of a major asset for a long period, said Jay Gonzalez, undersecretary of administration and finance. Gonzalez said the administration remains open to the idea, but pointed out that a big cash infusion depends on contracts that would allow tolls to increase for decades.
Let me get this straight: the PUBLIC PAID for the ROADS to be BUILT (with interest because of state mismanagement and financing), and now they are going to be SOLD OFF at CUT RATES while TOLLS will INCREASE FOR DECADES?! Owwww!!!
Yeah, that CONSTANT ASS-POKING HURTS!!!!!!
"What are you letting them do in return for that up-front payment?" Gonzalez said....
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Private deals can prevent toll rates from spiking erratically because the contracts often require steady increases. That can be attractive to public officials because they no longer have to immerse themselves in politically difficult decisions to raise tolls every few years. But that also means tollpayers have no recourse once the contracts are signed. And it guarantees that tolls continue for 50, 75, or 100 years, depending on the life of the lease.
That's a LONG, SLOW, ANAL RAPE!!!! They ought to install dildos where you sit in all the new cars so you can shove one up your ass as you drive!
The Massachusetts Turnpike's bonds are scheduled to be paid off in 30 years, but the state could eliminate tolls before that if it found another way to pay them off. Whoever agrees to take over the turnpike would also have to consider the price of maintenance, estimated at $1 billion over the next 10 to 20 years....
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Umm, no. TAXPAYERS PAY for things and then PRIVATE CORPORATIONS PROFIT!! That's AMERIKAN SOCIALISM: Public risk, private profits!!!!
In September, a deal to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike for $12.8 billion fell through, despite support from Governor Edward G. Rendell, after the Legislature refused to endorse it.
"What a lot of us here determined was that we in fact are selling one of our most valuable assets for a bargain-basement price," said Joseph F. Markosek, a Pennsylvania state representative who leads the Transportation Committee there. "Yeah, we get 8, 9 billion net up-front here, . . . but that has to last us 75 years."
Translation: Corporations and banks are gonna KEEP ON PUMPING THAT BUTT-HOLE!!! Can you tell I am ANGRY ABOUT THIS FLEECING of the PUBLIC?
The long-term implications also trouble Representative Joseph F. Wagner, a Chicopee Democrat and House chairman of the Transportation Committee. He points to the Turnpike Authority's decision in the late 1990s to enter into complicated financial deals with investment bankers called swaptions, agreements that crumbled with the financial markets and has put taxpayers at risk of owing hundreds of millions.
Yeah, but LET'S SELL THEM LOOTERS OUR ROADS that WE PAID FOR!!!!
Un-fucking-believable!!!
"There was a time when that idea just seemed terrific," Wagner said. "But nobody is talking about that today. When you are talking about state assets and the leveraging of those state assets for cash, I think you need to, A, be thoughtful and, B, be careful."
And then DO NOT DO IT!!!!
Yup, COULDN'T ELIMINATE the INCOME TAX, but we CAN LOSE all the revenue from the tolls by tossing that stream at MULTI-NATIONAL CORPORATIONS and BANKS so THEY CAN LOOT US!!!
Ain't Taxachusetts grand?
