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Follow TURFCisneros jumps on road privatization bandwagon
NOTE: Henry Cisneros is joining the ranks with Zachry and Red McCombs by jumping into road privatization schemes that fleece taxpayers. Hendricks tries to frame the issue around the token buzz word "jobs," yet these companies fail to grasp that unless an employee can afford to get to that job, the supposed job creation is a fantasy. Plus, road building jobs are very temporary compared to the long-term damage of multi-generational public debt, sweetheart deals, and private toll operators that charge 75 cents a mile to get to work. It's totally unsustainable. So few take SH 130 that ALL taxpayers, not just the users, are bailing it out for the entire life of the debt. The Transportation Commissioners are openly trying to figure out ways to incentivize trucks to take the expensive toll road (guess what, fellas? Truckers can't pony-up bucks they don't have and print money out of thin air like the feds do-- it's simple economics) with no success. This also poses a conflict of interest with Cisneros' wife as a sitting San Antonio City Councilmember that contributes to toll road decision-making for our region.
Private investors eye public projects
David Hendricks - David Hendricks
Express-News
Web Posted: 08/31/2010 4:47 CDT
Roads, bridges, parking garages, airport systems, utility lines, solar energy projects: U.S. cities need more and more of them, either to serve population growth or to replace aging and crumbling systems.
Despite a mountain of money from last year's Recovery Act, many projects cannot happen. Private debt markets have shrunk because of the economic recession. Insurance companies have all but disappeared as investors, partly because of AIG's role in the financial industry crisis. Credit ratings agencies have toughened their standards, making bonds harder to issue.
Cities and states are broke anyway. The Texas Department of Transportation, for example, barely receives enough in gasoline tax revenues to pay for maintenance of existing roads, never mind new projects.
This pushes the nation to the verge of a new era of private investment for public projects, argues former Mayor Henry Cisneros in the preface to a new book, “The Handbook of Infrastructure Investing,” edited by Michael Underhill (Wiley, $95).
Read the rest of the story here.