The Virginian-Pilot
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The outright sale of any Virginia port would be prohibited under a bill passed by the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday.
Sen. John Miller's legislation would, however, permit renewable lease agreements of up to 20-year increments and joint partnership deals between private firms and the Virginia Port Authority. All such arrangements would require approval from Virginia's governor under the bill sponsored by Miller, a Newport News Democrat.
An earlier version of Miller's bill, SB140, also would have required General Assembly consent before privatization contracts could be enacted. Port officials in the past have been approached about privatizing their operations.
Last month, Port Authority officials told The Virginian-Pilot they oppose several bills filed this year that would give lawmakers sway over privatization deals.
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The Governor?
Why shouldn't the general assy approve the lease or sale. What the devil did we vote you guys in for? I guess I answered with my own question. The General assembly?
Privateising state assets
No one has ever convinced me that a private FOR PROFIT company can make more money for a government than the government doing the same thing and keeping sll the profit. The only argument for this sell out is that all government workers are lazy crooks, and all private companies are perfect. Can anyone say Haliburton, Enron, FAI, Mobile, Exon, so on and son.
Government...profit? You must be kidding!
The examples of for profit companies providing government government services at a savings to the taxpayer and making a profit for themselves are too numerous to mention. The poster mentions Haliburton, who saves the DOD millions providing subsistence services in Iraq for a fraction of what the DOD was spending trying to do it themselves. Oh, and how about all those thousands of cleaning contracts for virtually every federal building, all done by private, for-profit businesses. Let see, there are food concessionaires, operated by large corporations in virtually every government-owned airport and many office building (can you say "Pentagon?"). Finally, in Maryland, where liquor stored are privately operated, the government makes many times in revenue what Virginia makes operating publicly-owned stores. I think this poster should consider doing a little basic research about how business works, before touting the government as the answer to port operations problems. Sooner or later, the government goons generally give up and let the grownups in to do the actual work.
Excellent!
Virginia's ports ARE NOT for sale to any "possible" foreign corp's!
Any state's ports are its vital and economic heart!
The risk of "privatization" leads to foreign interests, which we have too much of already in this country.
Good vote!
Now work harder to make them safe and profitable!