Facing Budget Gaps, Cities Sell Parking, Airports, Zoo ...at fire sale prices

[Liberal_in_LA]

Facing Budget Gaps, Cities Sell Parking, Airports, Zoo


By IANTHE JEANNE DUGAN
Cities and states across the nation are selling and leasing everything from airports to zoos—a fire sale that could help plug budget holes now but worsen their financial woes over the long run.

California is looking to shed state office buildings. Milwaukee has proposed selling its water supply; in Chicago and New Haven, Conn., it's parking meters. In Louisiana and Georgia, airports are up for grabs.

Dallas privatized the operation of its zoo and now wants to sell the Farmers' Market and Fair Park.
About 35 deals now are in the pipeline in the U.S., according to research by Royal Bank of Scotland's RBS Global Banking & Markets. Those assets have a market value of about $45 billion—more than ten times the $4 billion or so two years ago, estimates Dana Levenson, head of infrastructure banking at RBS. Hundreds more deals are being considered, analysts say.

The deals illustrate the increasingly tight financial squeeze gripping communities. Many are using asset sales to balance budgets ravaged by declines in tax revenues and unfunded pensions. In recent congressional testimony, billionaire investor Warren Buffett said he worried about how municipalities will pay for public workers' retirement and health benefits and suggested that the federal government may ultimately be compelled to bail out states.

selling government-owned property to private corporations and other entities—has been popular for years in Europe, Canada and Australia, where government once owned big chunks of the economy.

In many cases, the private takeover of government-controlled industry or services can result in more efficient and profitable operations. On a toll road, for example, a private operator may have more money to pump into repairs and would bear the brunt of losses if drivers used the road less.

While asset sales can create efficiencies, critics say the way these current sales are being handled could hurt communities over the long run. Some properties are being sold at fire-sale prices into a weak market. The deals mean cities are giving up long-term, recurring income streams in exchange for lump-sum payments to plug one-time budget gaps.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703960004575427150960867176.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[griffi94]

1. nice

and i guess after everything is sold and the new owners feel like their investment is underperforming, they will of course be free to dial back the services while raising the prices. if that still doesn't have the desired effect on the bottom line then they can always hit local and state governments up for the shortfall in the profits.
this seems like the same thing that happens with sports franchises.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. When "government" sells something, it is OUR money that bought it in the first place.

"governments" operate on tax dollars, mostly.
City programs and services are built with OUR money, either via taxes or bonds, we pay for it.
And now they "sell" the parks and city water????????to private businesses?
Who have little regulation about raising prices, correcting errors, and no incentive to maintain the infrastructure
because it is cheaper to grab all the profit, operate at minuscule margins, and even to go bankrupt if profits dive.
This country is being hollowed out. It happened in So.America, no one paid any attention.

[AnArmyVeteran]

5. Good post. What little we do have is being sold. Shameful.

Every sale should have strings attached like the rights to a certain percentage of the property, but not be subject to any losses. At least that way we could continually get something for what WE paid for. Hollowed out is a perfect description of what is happening. We're almost ready to be stuffed, cooked and eaten.

[dixiegrrrrl]

16. The smart thing to do now is

stop playing the government's game.
They are going to continue hollowing us out, making a new peasant class out of the former middle class.
That this is happening is unarguable, given the increasing gap between those who have wealth, those who are losing wealth and those who have nothing left.
Meanwhile the Right wing is deflecting our attention from all that by their latest shiny slogans and personalities and non-issues while the other party ( with rare exceptions ) pretends to be on our side.

We need to focus on what IS, and work ONLY for those we can count on to support serious change.
And meanwhile, on a day to day basis, protect as much of what we have as we can.

A lot of people have stopped using banks, for instance.
They are using credit unions, or even un-banking.
A lot of people have stopped flying commercially.
A lot of people are exploring alternative energy sources, food sources, barter instead of money, making things instead of buying them.
Dropping out is actually becoming HUGE.

think about what you can do, even one little step, for you.

[AnArmyVeteran]

19. Good ideas. Thanks.

I've already dropped out of most of the mainstream way of doing things. I always pay cash if I want something and always keep a lot of reserves like food and other resources to last at least six months. I've been debt free for over ten years and I've never paid any interest on anything other than my house. Paying interest on credit cards is the same thing as throwing a lot of money in the toilet and flushing. It's rare when anyone HAS to pay interest because it's so avoidable. All a person has to do is have some restraints on their buying habits. I know a lot of people, through who through no fault of their own, have had to use credit cards just to survive. But for the past thirty years people have been overextending themselves by using credit when they could have just saved up what they needed and paid cash.

I've been using Craigslist to sell a lot of stuff so I could downsize. Most of us have way too many possessions and I feel better with each new thing I sell. It's a 'win'-'win' situation because I not only get rid of something, I'm also making money.

Thanks again for your tips. I'm becoming more and more a part of the underground you are talking about. I wish we as s country would have used the trillions we spent on defense and two wars toward renewable home energy sources. I figured out rhat if we used that money at home on solar panels, windmills and other technologies almost every home in the country could have (or access to) its own source of energy, producing at least enough to power most of their energy needs.

It's sad when it's so easy for leaders to go to war but impossible to do what is right, or even sane. We should declare war on energy dependence where every American, except the oil, coal, natural gas and power companies, would benefit. But as long as we have corporate anchors around the neck of our country we will continue to barely tred water or drown.

President Obama and the democratic congress could be heroes and surging in the polls by now if they started that war as soon as Obama was sworn in. Not only would most citizens be getting access to renewable energy by now a green revolution would have created millions of new jobs. I don't understand why the people we put into leadership positions are so clueless, uncreative and unresponsive. I know the greatest challenge is to cut the corporate chains from our leaders so they are no longer slaves to industry so they can begin to represent the American people and our country for a change.

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. The trend toward frugal living, downsizing, is growing.

As the economy worsens, more and more people will be forced to find ways to downsize on some level.
Many resources available now on the web for various tips and tricks ( have you seen all the "small houses" ideas?) for cheaper living.and guess what? Lots of the ideas are what our Depression era parents and grandparents taught us!

Us baby boomers who "tuned in and dropped out" will find it easier in many ways to adjust to a lower standard of living. Many of us never left that standard, come to think of it. Not by much.

The "make do with less" concept has come and gone several times in the last 80 years, this time I really do think we are heading for a Japan-like "lost decade" ( if we are lucky) .
Perhaps more people will have the opportunity to learn to focus inward, not outward, for self esteem.
( isn't that what all the "gotta have, gotta buy" behavior is about? Self esteem?).



As to wars, wouldn't it be nice if there was a worldwide law that said NO military weapon could, in any way,emulate a penis or balls?
think about it.

[AnArmyVeteran]

24. I love your last two lines especially!

To the mutant throwbacks in our society war is macho and diplomacy is a sign of weakness. You're so right about the shape of missiles and guns. I've always thought that the IQs of a lot of gun nuts were no higher than the calibres of their guns. Most right wingers' IQs fall between 22 & 45 (or the calibres of their artificial penises. I've met a lot of men who believed their guns made them more macho and killing a living animal even more so. There are a lot of sick people in our society. I love your idea!!!

[dixiegrrrrl]

25. To be honest , I was trying to figure out what a weapon shaped like a vagina would look like

and that led me to remember the giant boob in Woody Allen's movie, Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex.

[AnArmyVeteran]

26. LOL!!! What a 'weapon'!

It would make weaponry a lot more interesting and maybe our soldiers wouldn't use them for for their intended purposes. I'm sure a lot of soldiers would get 'creative' with them. :)

Thanks for that mental imagery :)

[Blue_Tires]

15. +1

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Milwaukee selling its water supply means the price of beer is about to go up, up, up!

[TheKentuckian]

4. What it means is one day people will go thirsty because of lack of potable water

Or that people will be ill because of poor quality and it definitely means water will be more expensive.

[AnArmyVeteran]

6. Conservatives/libertarians want everything owned by for profit corporations.

[Lance_Boyle]

8. While I'm not at all certain about how Milwaukee proposes to sell Lake Michigan,

I am quite certain that Miller and Pabst are not "beer."

[LiberalAndProud]

10. I think it's probably a stretch to reach that conclusion.

Did I miss something in my google? As far as I can tell, the proposal is to sell water to Waukesha. Hardly a privatization. When it's the WSJ, I suspect the frame.

[HereSince1628]

11. Last I heard, Milwaukee was trying to sell water to its suburbs

whose well water supplies are contaminated with naturally occurring radium.

I had no idea they were looking to sell the water system.

[Erose999]

7. So they are selling zoos? Now I can finally realize my dream of

owning a pack lions to protect my property. I might put in a lowball bid on a few crocodiles too but I'm not sure if my place is zoned for a moat.

[NightWatcher]

9. I wanna monkey........let's pool our monies

[northernlights]

12. um, it would be funny...except

it may be happening on the outskirts of my tiny, very rural village. :wow:

For years there were rumours around town of mountain lion sightings. My neighbors across the street saw it in their back. Another person from master gardener program told me he saw it while driving up my street. The police consistently said, no, not a mountain lion. Most likely a bobcat -- city transplants don't know the difference. Then the wildlife officer got a picture of it in his back yard (right up the road from me) that landed on the front page of the local paper -- definitely not a bobcat with solid tawny coat, lion face, no tufts on ears, etc. A year later, and the police and town officials were back to denying there could possibly be a mountain lion around.

Then last year I was applying for a job at a local store. Sitting in the manager's office, I saw a picture of her with what looked like a big stuffed cat, like you might get at a fair. I did a double-take when I realized that was no stuffed animal. Asked her about it. She owns a lioness -- yes, that's a picture of her sitting on her sofa with a blue-eyed lioness sitting next to her! :wow: :wow: :wow:

Picked her up as a cub at a zoo auction -- she took one look and knew they "were karmically connected and meant to be together." She was careful to assure me she has both federal and state license to keep a lioness on her farm. She also assured me she has 4 fences, per state regulations. She also told me that 2 men had been caught trespassing on her land trying to shoot her lioness in her enclosure.

Between you and me, I somehow doubt that even *one* of her fences is 12' high -- or even close to it. But that's the height fence Tatiana escaped when she was taunted at that CA zoo.

Ever since then I've been wondering if that lioness has been going on little escapades when her person isn't home and she's bored?!?! Suddenly I think I understand why the town officials are in denial about the existance of a mountain lion.

[Liberal_in_LA]

17. Wow. Glad she has the 4 fences.

:wow:

[Erose999]

18. I recently saw a mountain lion . At first I thought it was some kind of crazy black dog with a

greyhound body and a pug face. But when it got out of the woods and I saw that the tail was twice as long as the body and it had huge paws I knew it wasn't a dog. It was booking it too, cleared the 2 lane highway in a single bound.

[northernlights]

21. mountain lions aren't black

they're golden/tawny brown.

Probably another kind of large cat. Sometimes the uberwealthy/or just plain nutty get big cats as "kittens," and then turn them loose to fend for themselves when they aren't little and cute any more. :wow:

[Erose999]

22. It could have been a very dark grey or brown. Definitely a big cat though, had to be 5-6 feet from

its nose to the tip of its tail.

[Gold Metal Flake]

13. This is what "starving the beast" is really about.

Forcing billions of dollars of public-owned infrastructure into private hands for pennies on the dollar.

[Greyhound]

14. Which invariably makes things worse.

Every rich person in the world knows that you never part with capital, never.

Of course, administrations don't really give a shit about tomorrow, they'll be living comfortably, spending their bribes when the shit hits the fan.

[Edweird]

23. Clearly the solution is more tax cuts along with outsourcing, H1B's and illegal immigrants.

No jobs and low wages RULE!