Hey you, wanna buy a bridge?

[DoYouEverWonder]

Pataki, seeking infusions of cash for the state, wants to sell or lease properties including Thruway, Tappan Zee and 2nd Avenue subway

February 4, 2005

ALBANY -- For Sale: 641-mile superhighway, with 27 rest stops and reliable toll revenues. Interested? Call the New York State Thruway Authority.

It's not as far-fetched as it sounds. Gov. George Pataki is proposing to sell or lease the state's transportation assets for large infusions of cash. Private companies would run them and collect tolls to make a profit, which critics say could cost taxpayers more in the long run.

<snip>

Pataki administration officials have met in recent months with top executives at Macquarie Securities, an Australian investment bank, and LCOR, a Pennsylvania developer, which are seeking together to build a replacement for the Tappan Zee Bridge and manage it under a long-term lease.

And last week, MTA Executive Director Katherine Lapp told state lawmakers the Second Avenue subway line could be a candidate for privatization.

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/state/ny-stpriv0204,0,158718.story?coll=nyc-homepage-breakingheadlines

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. will they change the names to

ripoff thruway and ripoff subway?

[illflem]

2. A private company would just raise the tolls

why doesn't the state government just do that itself if they need money?

[itzamirakul]

3. Pataki probably won't run again and he wants to

feather his nest with the profits from the sale.

[Cooley Hurd]

4. Privatizing the Thruway??? Now, THAT'S a really...

BAD IDEA!!!!

Watch the roads, bridges and rest areas turn to shit within two years.:grr:

[UL_Approved]

5. This is just a crime

Selling off all infrastructure to pay for our losses/downturns/etc.??

How does one rationally say that selling off publicly funded, paid for, and offered services suddenly need to be in private hands?

Is this world we live in a pop-quiz? Are we being tested to see if we can withstand and correct this kind of debauchery? :shrug:

[RPM]

6. uh - doesnt someone have to build the second ave line first.

I can't imagine ANY private group bearing the entire cost/risk of building that project these days.

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. Only after they finish rebuilding the BQE

which has been under construction since I moved to Florida almost 30 years ago.