The number of firms bidding to run the Virginia Port Authority’s marine terminals has increased from one to three. Last week, The Carlyle Group and a partnership of Carrix Inc. and Goldman Sachs filed separate proposals to operate the port.
Illinois-based CenterPoint Properties Trust touched off the scrum with an initial bid in March.
Choice brings with it real benefits for the port and the taxpayers who own this marvelous asset. State leaders can compare not only the size of the financial offers but also assess the different levels of management experience.
But that natural temptation to jump into a side-by-side comparison underscores the hazards that lie ahead.
The question at hand must not be, “Which deal is the best?” That evaluation should take place only after a more fundamental question has been answered: “Should Virginia relinquish control of its most important economic asset to a private company?”
This is not a game show. A mistake could cost generations of Virginians billions of dollars in port profits and missed economic opportunities.
It’s difficult to walk away when the state budget is so anemic and companies are waving handfuls of cash. But it’s important for leaders to steel their nerves and thoroughly evaluate the potential merits and dangers of any deal before picking from what may turn out to be three bad choices.
The final decision will occur under the next governor.
Republican candidate Bob McDonnell and Democrat Creigh Deeds agree that public-private partnerships can be a means to generate capital for needed infrastructure improvements. McDonnell promises to aggressively pursue privatization ventures, while Deeds has urged greater caution.
Gov. Tim Kaine would be doing his successor an enormous favor by assembling a panel of economists and other experts to study the issue and advise the incoming executive.
Among the questions that need exploration:
-What is the real value of the port now and how much is that likely to grow over the next 50 or 60 years?
-Is there any reason to believe that a private company can improve on the successes the port has experienced for the past 37 years under state control?
-Is privatization of the port the best way to generate money for road and rail improvements to move cargo in and out of the region?
Privatizing the port would be a gamble. Before state leaders start peering behind Door No. 1, 2 or 3, they should make sure they understand what the state has to gain and, just as importantly, what it could lose by making a deal at all.
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We have to decide if Virginia is to run the ports or not
I do agree that Virginia must first decide if we want to give control of our ports to a private enterprise. My only hope is that if we do decide to keep control and management by our state government that in regards to efficiency that they are the exception to the rule. The rule being that normally government tends to add unncessary red tape and procedures to anything they do and the legislature mettles in affairs they have no knowledge of what they are doing.
The temptation of...
an immediate financial windfall had better be balanced against what stands to be gained, and especially potentially LOST, over the long haul. Many of the politicians around today are not going to be around in the future, near or otherwise. We're paying the price now from bad decsions made by career politicians at all levels who took the most advantageous deal at their time (usually for the political benefit of those politicians) and they reaped those benfits and escaped the wrath when those deals ultimately went bad.