Call it a sign of desperate times: Legislators are considering selling the House and Senate buildings where they’ve conducted state business for more than 50 years.
Dozens of other state properties also may be sold as the state government faces its worst financial crisis in a generation, if not ever. The plan isn’t to liquidate state assets, though.
Instead, officials hope to sell the properties and then lease them back over several years before assuming ownership again. The complex financial transaction would allow government services to continue without interruption while giving the state a fast infusion of as much as $735 million, according to Capitol projections.
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Notes:
I find this situation hard to believe. Surely there’s a better option.
Jack you are right there is a better option. Stop spending money you do not have. Stop supporting none citizens. Contract the size of government, get out of what the private sector can do better and cheaper.
How much do you want to bet that the lack of political will for spending cuts includes a really significant lack of will to cutting their own expenses and perks… you know, doing things like selling the limo and riding the bus like others do when money gets tight, flying commercial instead of charter, turn out the lights at night, cut expense accounts, of maybe even take a cut in pay.
You know, all the things governments everywhere are telling the people who pay their wages to do in these tought economic times.
I wonder if they had a look at some of their nanny state laws (every jurisdiction has them) and said things like, “ya know what, busting people for smoking a joint in their livingroom on the week-ends is costing us a fortune in enforcement, prosecution, and jail costs – lets leave the recreational pot smokers alone“.
There’s an endless list of useless laws and regulations in each and every (supposedly) democratic jurisdiction you can name that cost the state a fortune that if dropped would cut expenses considerably.