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Leasing a highway to a private operator allows a state government to focus its resources on doing the "heavy lifting" in rebuilding the infrastructure,

No, it actually frees up the government to look for new things to tax, and to perpetuate its growth and existance...

while the day-to-day cost of operating/maintaining the asset will be passed on to a private operator who can do it far more efficiently than government can.

Based upon what data where anything has run on schedule, or even on budget in any government/private sector endeavor??? Remember most of the private sector entities are foriegn owned...Why would you believe they could do it any better than a domestic firm, which should make you wonder why we don't see a lot of domestic firm taking up the lead to run these shows...Looks to me like a lot of their dealings are beyond most scrutiny from anyone in this countrues ability to snoop...Not that I believe any of this is some big conspiracy, but it does make some people think outside the box and try to determine why this is a trend in the way our goverenment is conducting business...

The fact that the most vocal opponents of these lease arrangements are usually public-sector labor unions is a good reason to at least consider these deals seriously.

I am a vocal opponent of these types of deals based upon a lot of factors labor unions couldn't give a flip about...And I am not in anyway shape or form involved with any union...So why do you think I am opposed???

It's important to note that leasing a highway in the U.S. may actually be a bad investment in the long run -- which is why I suspect U.S. firms generally have no interest in these ventures. It's far more lucrative for U.S. firms to underwrite the bonds used to finance these transactions than to actually go out and be a party to the deal.

I believe most companies that pursue these leases tend to be foreign-owned companies with a lot of cash to invest, looking for something relatively stable in the U.S. This enables them to take advantage of a weak U.S. dollar today that will rise and fall over the course of the lease (thereby offering opportunities to engage in different types of transactions depending on whether the U.S. dollar is strong or weak at any given time). The tax laws in the home countries of these foreign firms may be favorable to this kind of arrangement, too.