Thursday, August 19, 2010

Broke States Should Save Themselves By Selling Off Roads, Colleges, And Other Assets

Broke States Should Save Themselves By Selling Off Roads, Colleges, And Other Assets

One of the many looming financial crises in the United States is the horrendous budget shortfall faced by many states.

James Altucher, managing director at Formula Capital, floats an innovative solution to this problem.

Instead of raising taxes, cutting spending, or going even deeper in debt, Altucher says, states should sell off some assets.

What assets?

Assets like roads, bridges, state parks, public transportation systems, and universities.

If New Jersey were to sell the New Jersey Turnpike, for example, it would immediately raise tens of billions of dollars, which would radically improve the state's financial health. And a private road operator might do a better job of running the turnpike than the state can.

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For the past three decades, local governments privatized local government as mandatory membership HOAs to cut costs. Now financially strapped states can do the same thing by privatizing their infrastructure, including universities. Query: Will our esteemed professor McKenzie retain tenure if the community association industry decides to buy the University of Illinois?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, it isn't going to be CAI. They appear nearly broke from their last financials. They could save nearly $300,000/year just by terminating one employee.

Evan McKenzie said...

I'm thinking UIC should have the world's largest bake sale so we can all get paid for the full year.