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There’s a great op-ed from George F. Will of the Washington Post making the media rounds that discusses Chicago Mayor Richard M. Dailey’s use of the long-term leasing of his city’s assets such as the Dan Ryan Expressway to private enterprises for the generation of immediate cash windfalls.  While I agree with Mayor Dailey’s reasons for utilizing these assets to fund economic development, Will makes an incredibly good case against such practices.  Will says:

“Unfortunately, Daley’s theory — that it can be better to get a sum X immediately, rather than getting over many years a sum Y that is substantially larger than X — assumes something that cannot be assumed. It assumes that governments will prudently husband sudden surges of revenue from the lease or sale of assets…”

Will is right in saying that we cannot trust our elected officials to spend our money wisely, much less prepare for a rainy day.  What’s really ironic is that when former Ohio Republican Gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell floated an idea similar to Daley’s for leasing the Ohio Turnpike, he was not met with Will’s argument by opposition Democrats.  Instead he was combatted by critics with attacks citing the potential increase in costs to turnpike users.  That’s because Democrats think they know how to spend money - just like Republicans think they know how to spend money.

The problem is that there are few if any elected officials (regardless of party affiliation) that can’t resist spending a surplus of funds immediately.  Forget about tomorrow, they need to get re-elected today, so they’ll do anything to stay in office - even if it means sacrificing our future to do so. 

Just look at what’s occurred with the billions of dollars generated by the recent multi-state tobacco settlement.  While the money in the settlement was meant for anti-tobacco use education and to lessen the burden of caring for those afflicted with tobacco-related illnesses, many states are “securitizing“ the money to pay for things like road construction or tax deferral.  I’m not a genius, but I do think limiting the tar in cigarettes and not adding it to the surface of highways was what former Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore (not the fat guy) had in mind when he sued the “Camel cartel”.

At the time of Blackwell’s proposal, I supported the privitization of public assets.  After reading Will’s OpEd though, I may have to reconsider.