Posted on 09/28/2017 4:28:56 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
President Donald Trump’s $1 trillion plan to rebuild America’s infrastructure may be unprecedented in size and ambition, but it mimics a controversial scheme championed by Vice President Mike Pence when he was the governor of Indiana. That’s why Pence is the public face of the Trump initiative, and executives from financial firms that helped privatize Indiana’s toll road are in the White House, busily sculpting Trump’s national plan.
Pence and his allies like to boast about how Indiana sold control of major roads to private firms, claiming the move prompted corporations to invest money in infrastructure that would otherwise have been funded by taxpayers. But opponents say Indiana made some bad deals that offer a cautionary tale of get-rich-quick scheming, secrecy and cronyism that led the state to sell off valuable assets that were then wildly mismanaged.
Public-private partnerships involve private companies investing in, constructing or maintaining public assets such as roads, bridges and airports—in exchange for those companies raking in tolls, fees or other revenues generated by those assets. The model—sometimes called “asset recycling”—has been prevalent in Australia, Asia and Europe, and since the turn of the 21st century, more American cities and states have begun to embrace it. Few, however, have been as aggressive as Indiana in pursuing such partnerships.
The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that it will take $4.6 trillion to maintain and upgrade infrastructure throughout the United States, a ripe profit opportunity for politically connected firms. Trump recently secured a pledge by Saudi Arabia’s government to invest billions in American infrastructure. That money is slated to flow through Blackstone Group LP—the private equity firm run by Trump adviser Stephen Schwarzman.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Even Donald Trump would not seek the adoration of millions if this proposal were to be carried out to its fullest extent.
Some things are just of vastly more good than most of the alternatives. There is NOT moral equivalency in all things.
CHICAGO toll roads are privatized, and the tolls keep going up and up.
If you read the whole article, while it is newsweek, it really doesn’t sound like it worked in Indiana. One project stalled because the investor was from SPAIN. So will the chinese be able to own our roads? Oh good! As for tolls going up, the Pennsylvania Turnpike is ridiculous. I wonder if the funds from that are used for immigrants.
“ALL about privatization”
Because of corrupt govt employees
With the exception of the Chicago Skyway, which is a PPP, all toll roads in Chicagoland are fully public, owned by the Illinois Tollway Authority. The Authority nearly doubled toll rates a few years ago to fund a $9B, 12-year construction initiative for things such as widening and rebuilding I-90, tolling and extending Illinois 390, building the new I-490 around O’Hare’s western side, etc. So, with that jump in tolls, it may SEEM like the tollways are privately owned.
You beat me to it.
3rd Q GDP 3.1%.
“They said 3% wasn’t possible. Trump got there in 3 quarters
The best efforts of the team combine to MAGA
Another Partisan Media Shill hit piece from the hacks at NewsWeak. Thanks Tolerance Sucks Rocks.
<>Trump recently secured a pledge by Saudi Arabia’s government to invest billions in American infrastructure.<>
I don’t count mosques as infrastructure.
More like extraordinarily fancy dirt piles.
Here’s is probably the best way. Set up an infrastructure bank for the states to be accessed by the local agencies through a competitive project selection process. Each year money is loaned out at below bond rate and agencies payback the loan. The drawback is that it would take 20 years for the first loans to mature and be paid off so they would have to fund these banks for 20 years before they became self sufficient.
We had such a system here in Washington State ($100 million/year) and it worked great, right up to the time that the legislature pulled all the funds out and all future annual loan repayments and rolled that money into the general fund.
Yeah, as if a society of civil engineers is going to reduce its opportunities by claiming other than that an astronomical amount of work is required!
What are you trying to say?
(The Gipper was clear.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.