NEW YORK (AP) — As 2010 drew to a close, the mayor of Newark, N.J., was staring into a budget abyss so deep that he sold 16 city buildings to pay the bills. They included the architecturally significant Newark Symphony Hall and the police and fire headquarters.
In New York, the transit authority may sell its Madison Avenue headquarters, complete with an underground tunnel connected to Grand Central Terminal and air rights to build a skyscraper on top.
And soon, if state legislators have their way, private investors will be able to buy plenty of other municipal treasures: power plants in Wisconsin, prisons in Louisiana and Ohio and municipal buildings in Boston.
The Great Government Tag Sale is on. As states and cities struggle with billions of dollars in shortfalls, elected officials are increasingly selling public assets to cover their costs. Sometimes municipalities sell the buildings to pocket a one-time pile of cash and then lease them back so they can continue to use them.
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And the US could sell Hawaii!
Throw in all those little islands we own and cop maybe $3 trillion. And just like “only Nixon could go to China” only Obama could sell Hawaii.
Why not. Elected officials have been bought & sold over the years.
Thanks Cain. Top notch work in the newsroom and in the blog. Love the story preview you put on this page so I don’t have to click again to see the meat of the story.