This must really be a great deal for the global consortium if they are willing to wait, and wait and wait for this business. The question is…..is it a really great deal for the citizens of the state of Pennsylvania? I doubt that the legislators in Harrisburg will really get to the bottom of that question since they are good at putting of decisions or sliding bad ones thru on moonless nights. If the global corporation would offer free cars, tolls and gas to the elected officials, there by freeing up the monies spent by the Commonwealth it might be a good incentive for both sides, we the voters and they the deciders.

The leasing of the Turnpike is what my finance professor would term, “a one-shot,” viz. the sale of an asset that will bring a large, immediate, but singular cash flow that cannot be readily duplicated again in the near future. New York is considering a similar lease of its lottery. Governments like these entirely too well because they have, for reasons as technical their accounting methods to the immediate goals of legislators, a strong bias toward the immediate term. This means that when the decision is made, there likely will be inadequate consideration of the long-term implications of the decision and inefficient, nearsighted use of the cash that it will supply. If I knew that the government would use its boon to pay some of the principal on its debt or at least to secure the continuation of policies that are in or near fiscal peril, I might be far less reticent about the wisdom of the measure, but such prudent, modest decisions seem painfully improbable.

If you would like to read a lengthier, far better informed and thorougher analysis of the related policy of leasing lotteries, a paper that the professor I alluded to above and one of his colleague wrote is available from ASPA. (look for “Hey You Never Know: Selling State Lotteries in America” by James Fossett and Robert Purtell)

The addiction to taxes does far more damage than drug addiction.

Many don’t realize that the Turnpike is the biggest cash cow the state has next to the LCB. We can generate our own revenue and we don’t need outsiders to do it for us. The Pennsylvania Turnpike was the first superhighway in the US built during the depression of the 30’s and helped put millions to work to build a piece of history. It is a selfsustaining enterprise that needs no money from the General Fund to keep it going and it generates a lot of cash to Pennsylvania, and it is expanding all the time. Why do we need someone else to run it when we can run it ourselves. We don’t need outsiders in our state to run our own system. What you really have to ask is where most of the money is going from the sale of the Turnpike to see why Rendell wants to lease it. Sure it will bring in a lot of money in the beginning but most of the money will be going to Philadelphia to bail out Septa once again and fix most of the roads and bridges in Philadelphia with little money going to the rest of the state. Fast Eddie wants to get what he can out of the state for his beloved Philadelphia before he leaves office and we will be stuck with this nightmare for 75 years. The only way that foreigners can make money on it is by raising fares every year to the point where no one will use the turnpike anymore and try to find ways around it to save on the cost of using it. His plan will hurt Pennsylvanians rather than help them.