From the New York Times:
Parts of New Jersey Government for Sale? Just Supposing
Should New Jersey consider selling or leasing state assets, the New Jersey Turnpike, the Garden State Parkway and the lottery system are the best bets, according to a report released yesterday by the state’s treasurer.
The report, prepared by UBS Financial Services, outlines the worth of state assets like toll roads, naming rights for state venues, and even prisons, ranking them into two classes based on their relative value. Those in the second tier include Atlantic City International Airport and the PNC Bank Arts Center, an amphitheater along the parkway in central New Jersey. It does not assign dollar values to any assets.
In an interview yesterday afternoon, Treasurer Bradley I. Abelow cautioned against drawing any conclusions about the likelihood of selling or leasing any of the state’s holdings and said that any decision on doing so would not likely be made for another six months. Once a decision is made, the report said, a sale could be completed in as soon as a year.
“Take it for what it is — it’s a snapshot,” Mr. Abelow said, adding that the state would be “deliberate and sensitive” in considering its options.
Leasing or selling toll roads and other assets are among the options being debated as New Jersey tries to resolve its budget problems and reduce its residents’ property tax burden, which is the nation’s highest. Some other governments are experimenting with similar approaches. Chicago agreed to a 99-year lease for its eight-mile Skyway, which brought the city $1.8 billion last year.
…
Senator Leonard Lance, the leader of the Republican minority, said yesterday that any money generated from state assets should not be used to cover general operating expenses or to pay for programs like the Legislature’s plan to offer a 20 percent credit on the property tax bills of most of the state’s homeowners.“The only reason state assets should be sold is to reduce the state debt,” he said. Currently, the state’s debt is about $30 billion.
“Should New Jersey consider selling or leasing state assets, the New Jersey Turnpike, the Garden State Parkway and the lottery system are the best bets”
I think they will, because that is the only way out of this mess. Along with widespread legalize gambling. Make Atantic City, the next “cool & hip” party town like Vegas, make the rest of the state like Nevada, and best of all…. Make Bergen County like Deadwood, South Dakota.
I actually think I am going to start SERIOUSLY support and push for this.
SAS
oh yeah, and sell the roads to China.
Why not? they already own your home, they might as well own your roads too.
We don’t produce anything to sell, might as well sell or lease assets.
Btw, if you think YOU own your home….ha….think again.
(unless your home is fully paid off, than thats a different story).
SAS
“Turnpike, the Garden State Parkway and the lottery system ”
Are these profitable entities? If so, how are we going to make up for the drop in cash flow? more debt?
never a good sign when a business has to
sell assets to meet current obligations.
if the state was a business it would be
operating in a BK court.
so, only way out of this mess is stop
spending more than you take in and that
boys and girls is impossible in NJ
Simple experiment.
Call your bank, tell them you need to order cash for about 80% of your balance. Pick a denomination, i.e. $20, $50, $100, then ask them how soon can you pick it up.
Watch, they will give you every excuse under the sun not to give you cash. They will tell you to take a bank check.
A bank check is not the same as cash. They don’t want to monetize your cash.
Try it, let me know how successful are you with it. Chances are, they won’t do it.
-Sapiens
My mother just paid off her house yesterday. Too bad her taxes are 9k a year :-/
“never a good sign when a business has to
sell assets to meet current obligations”
You can apply that same concept to this country.
we can also say:
“never a good sign when the United States has to
sell assets to meet current obligations”
and you wonder why the world central banks are diversifying out of US dollars? They know that eventually USA can’t meet its debt obligations, so they (the Fed reserve, whom is not Federal without any reserves), are just going to “create” money..i,e.. run the damn printing press.
The Jersey gold coast may have lost it glitter, but REAL GOLD, which is REAL money has not, and I don’t seeing it lose its glitter for some time to come. Of course, we will have pullbacks, but think long term.
As soon as the US consumer starts to pullback on spending…. look out…
I just hope you are on a savings plan now.
Because if you were to lose your job in 07, what would you do???
Plan ahead, hear me now, and thank me later.
SAS
Sapiens,
Sounds like you want to do a good ol fashion bank run.
:)
SAS
Sounds like a fire sale to me. My concern is that they are selling off a lifetime annuity for a short term gain (referring to the lottery), don’t know the P/L of the turnpike/parkway. What happens when greedy pols get their hands on this $. Do you really think that it would be utilized for some concrete structural purpose??? They’ll turn on the spigots and within a short period of time, they’ll be hitting us up with another tax to compensate for this loss of income. Stop looking for income, the stae does not have a damn income problem, it’s the spending side of the ledger. All efforts should be concentrated on this, I know I’m hallucinating!!
“Too bad her taxes are 9k a year”
How do you think alot of these retiree people feel, or people whom are near retirement feel?
That is why, if you live in NJ, kiss retirement goodbye, you will work to you drop, and you will never know your kids, because they have grown up while your ass was at work all day to pay for this mess.
Buy hey,,,, your kids went to a “good” school.
and that will of course make up for all the lack of time we spend with our kids in order to pay for the McShit house, property taxes, the SUV, and the cable bill.
What time is dinner again?
Oh thats right, we don’t eat dinner with our kids anymore, because we work too much to pay for all our shit.
Thank goodness their is always McDonalds, to makes up for it, but now Americans are a fat ass, with a clog artery, while they drink the “Diet Soda”. Ans we wonder why health care is expensive?? Its because of you fatty 4×4.
ahhh, but real estate only goes up, and in the long run, it will all be worth those sacrafices we made.
oh man…. it just gets piled higher and deeper.
yours truly,
SAS
PS. I haven’t had my morning coffee, because my coffee pot broke, and I also just noticed the damn thing says “Made in China”.
PS. I haven’t had my morning coffee, because my coffee pot broke, and I also just noticed the damn thing says “Made in China”.
Believe it or not – NOTHING I own, except my car was made in US….. In addition, my car is made with 95% Japaneese part, but assembled in Texas Nissan Factory.
As far as selling assent to meet goal – well it seems to me that This State and This County are going the easy way – temporary fix, and who cares what will happen in 20 years…
Guess what – in 20 years I will be in my earlier 50th.. I do care, But nobody of my friends does, and when I bring politic up they all say – ohh we do not pay attention it is too depressing – let’s go whats Footbal/movie/dumb realty show. And I work with a bunch of people with different Graduate school degree’s – highly qualified professionals….
Disclaimer: I hate realty Shows, I literally want to kill people who created them, I thik they are the most degrading type of Television you can watch.
GO Discovery Channel!!!
This is the slippery slope were on. No one has the guts to cut services, they’d rather go for the quick fix. I wouldn’t expect Corzine and the gang to actually ask departments and agencies to start making sacrifices. No, they’ll take the easy way out.
But I’d like to see USB’s report, and find out just how they can determine the future value of these kind of assets? This is surely a wild speculation.
if the state was a business it would be
operating in a BK court.
Absolutely, I was thinking the same thing. The problem is that the politicians are trying to fix NJ’s problems with a series of small tweaks and by selling assets. The can’t go after the big ticket items like restructuring pensions and increasing the retirement age for current employees because of the state constitution.
NJ needs to start treating the tax crisis as like a bankruptcy. In bankruptcy, a company restructures. For NJ state, this means a constitutional convention. After all, this is what Corzine promised if the tax committee’s recommendations fell short, which seems to be the case.
I’m all for selling the naming rights. If Trenton State Prison were renamed to Wachovia Prison of New Jersey, then maybe my old alma mater, Trenton State College (currently The College of New Jersey) might change its name back.
(It’s sad when a state college is ashamed to have the state’s capital in its name!)