Infrastructure for Sale!

If you believe this post, I can sell you a bridge.

As reported by the (Murdochian) New York Post:

Warning of an approaching economic calamity, [New York] Gov. Paterson yesterday called an emergency session of the state Legislature - and raised the specter that New York may have to sell off roads, bridges and tunnels to close a massive budget deficit.

A fellow 'Poster' columnist, Fredric U. Dicker (No. I'm not making up the name) describes Paterson's proposal as a:

fire-sale leasing of such core state assets as roads, bridges and tunnels - just the sort of thing near-bankrupt Third World nations used to do under pressure from the colonial powers.

So believe it: New York might sell off its bridges --or, to use the CC (corporately-correct) phrasing, the State will enter into a 'private-public' partnership.

What's the price tag on, say, the Brooklyn Bridge? I'm not in the privatization Biz, but here are some helpful numbers:
2 years ago, Australian-Spanish consortium Cintra-Macquarie leased the Indiana Toll road for 3.8 billion.

According to Macquarie, each day the toll road processes 'over 155,00' transactions'

According to the New York City Department of Transportation, 126,805 people cross the Bridge each day.

Slap a toll of 6 bucks (the bridge is free now, but this is privatization, baby) and you got a daily revenue of 760,830 bucks. Yearly revenue: 277,702,950

Of course, I have no idea how must it costs to run the bridge. Costs can be cut. Sure, the Brooklyn Bridge is structurally deficient. But costs can be cut.

78 years ago, Hart Crane wrote an ode to the Brooklyn Bridge. Read the whole thing. Even better, read it aloud. Here is the last stanza.

O Sleepless as the river under thee,

Vaulting the sea, the prairies' dreaming sod,

Unto us lowliest sometime sweep, descend

And of the curveship lend a myth to God.

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future