What is my bid for this wonderful piece of American Art.
Posted on 03/24/2006 5:34:34 AM PST by Calpernia
State Senator Ray Lesniak thinks allowing the New Jersey Turnpike Authority to sell off a portion of the state's toll roads would produce a huge windfall and annual savings for years to some. He doesn't, however think any potential cash from the sale should be used to stave off Governor Jon Corzine's one-cent state sales tax proposal.
A bill Lesniak is set to introduce a bill that would, "allow the sale of 49% of the Turnpike Authority retaining control for the State of New Jersey." The Senator claims financial experts have told him that by doing so the state will be, "raising $6 billion so that we could shore up our pension and earn hundreds of millions of dollars a year in revenue because we eliminated that (pension fund) deficit."
"Because we control interest," says Lesniak, "we could ensure that there will no toll hikes above the rate of inflation (and) that toll roads are properly maintained." He calls his legislation, "A win-win-win."
Lesniak is adamant that any funds raised should not be used to take the Governor's sales tax increase plans off the table, "I think that's a mistake and would be fiscally irresponsible because this is a one-shot revenue."
The measure can't be formally introduced until the State Senate's next quorum call and that doesn't happen until May. Lesniak says, "Even after the introduction, we're looking at about a year before this could actually happen."
"If we sell an interest in the Turnpike," says GOP State Senator Leonard Lance, "we would have to distribute preferred stock and financial analysis indicates that type of preferred stock is considered a form of borrowing." Lance has twice succeeded in lawsuits against democratic administrations to block borrowing without voter approval.
Lance says, "If we sell 49% of the toll roads, 49% of the tolls will be used to pay those who purchased these bonds and we will no longer have these revenues to help fund the toll roads." If the state controls just 51% of the toll roads, is there a guarantee that the 49% of public stockholders would be willing to spend to maintain the roads? Lance says, "There would have to be a contract with the private sector and I'm sure that would be open to negotiation and I am very skeptical of that as well."
What is my bid for this wonderful piece of American Art.
Take our politicians to Egypt in chains and sell!
How symbolic.
Repubs for sale or rent...Highest bidder an Arab gent...
They can have it!
Sure it does. It's obvious to me that we simply value our "standard of living" more than anything else -- including our security, our financial stability, our civic institutions, etc. If selling off our assets to foreign countries is the only way to maintain this standard of living, then that's exactly what we're going to do.
The Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gassett explained it perfectly in his classic essay, "Revolt of the Masses." He was writing about the civil unrest in Spain in the 1930s in particular, but he was remarkably astute about how the flawed human condition manifested itself in idiotic public policy in democratic societies.
Oh goody, another major US asset for some foreigners to buy
PENSIONS....that says it all for me. Always thinking of their pensions.
What EU rules were those, specifically?
Run by the same company that our idiot governor here in Texas wants to give toll roads to. Believe it or not, there are lots of supporters of this on FreeRepublic.
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