[Protagoras]

Why offer a substantive opinion on something as trivial as this proposal?

The chances of enactment may be small, but the concept is not trivial. That's why.

It is ridiculous for him to even discuss it.

Most of the time, important ideas are not discussed by elected officials out of fear of offending some portion of the electorate. They are cowards. This idea may have been raised for the wrong reason, but it is never ridiculous to discuss ideas.

If you want to discuss the merits of privitization, I guess we could do that.

It is really the only thing worth discussing.

"Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people." And no, that's not a comment about you.

Let's strive for greatness even if we don't achieve.

[gridlock]

Well, to discuss the merits, I do not support privitization, because it will not really be a private entity. It is not possible to run something like the NJTP or the GSP without being intimately involved with the dozens of jurisdictions these roadways pass through. The entity would have to work with these jurisdictions hand-in-glove and would be so regulated that the governments would be, if effect, calling the shots. So what you would have is some kind of half-private, half governmental corporation that would be empowered with all sorts of special authorities. I just have no confidence that the State of New Jersey would be able to strike the right balance.

Not to mention that the primary motivation of 98% of land use decisions in New Jersey is graft. These folks cannot even replace a sidewalk without having to pay off everybody from the County Freeholders to the local cop. We are supposed to trust them to transfer an asset like the New Jersey Turnpike without forming a conga line of politicos who all have to be paid?

Maybe in an ideal world. But New Jersey is not an ideal world.