No Money For Bargains
Fred Grimm at the Miami Herald reports on failed attempt to sell Florida assets: No bids found for highway robbery deal
If only I had known that all those well-connected foreign conglomerates were gonna chicken out I’d have bid on Alligator Alley myself.
Heck. I’d have offered the entirety of what’s left of my 401(k). I figure if I’m ever jettisoned from the newspaper writing business, my unique skill sets correspond nicely with the necessary attributes of highway toll collector. I already own plenty of cheesy Florida shirts. All I’d need, to complete my resumé, is a long-term lease on a busy 78-mile ready-built, well-maintained, high-profit toll road.
Who could’ve guessed that none of the expected bidders would bother, despite the state spending $3 million on the prep work to unload a public asset the public would rather keep?
Selling assets to cover budget problems was a prominent feature of the Reagan Administration. Rather than admit that the big tax cuts for the wealthy did nothing but generate huge deficits, Reagan and Congress started selling the property of the taxpayers to cover the real cost of their mess.
Fortunately this sale failed, but the practice is a long time responsibility dodge by politicians – short term cash infusions to cover this year’s problems that make matters worse in the future.
2 comments
It says something about the state of the global credit market when big-time corporations can’t borrow $500 million to consummate highway robbery.
Oh my. Must… stop…. laughing…
Badtux´s last blog post..A small blue thing
They should have probably asked Geithner for the money directly, instead of trying to get it through a bank.
If you have to go East-West in South Florida, you have to use Alligator Alley; it is the only road across the Everglades. It is a steady revenue source, that the legislature tried to sell.