Board of Public Works OKs port deal
So the Board of Public Works approved the deal to lease Seagirt, Baltimore's main public terminal, to Ports America and Highstar Capital for 50 years. One additional problem with the deal is, it'll be hard to know in the future whether it was a good pact or not. Much of Seagirt's financial data now becomes private, and it'll be impossible to see how much money Highstar or whoever owns Ports America is making.
The deal isn't done yet. They need to get financing and so forth. But the BPW approval was the last hurdle Highstar faced from the state. So the pact was basically announced and rubber-stamped within a month. The General Assembly gave its blessing in a letter yesterday. "The deal that the State has secured for Seagirt Marine Terminal will be of tremendous benefit to the State," top legislative officials wrote to MDOT yesteday. Not, I bet, as tremendous as the benefit to Highstar.
Comments
Is there anyone in state government with an IQ over 30?
Posted by: Bar | December 16, 2009 3:32 PM
@ Bar: Oddly enough, there are many of us with an IQ of 30. But, we are the peons and no one asks us anything.
Posted by: sgw | December 16, 2009 4:01 PM
If as you say it will be a tremendous benefit to Highstar, why couldn't the state profit as well?
Oh yea, they ARE INCOMPETENT!
Posted by: Voters Ignorance | December 16, 2009 4:14 PM
Think things through. Unless the Port can dredge to 50 ft, they will be total losers in 2014 when the newly widened Panama Canal opens to shipping. The state does not have the money to pay for the dredging so it makes sense to share both the responsibility/cost and the hoped-for profits as well. Not everything the state does is either evil or stupid.
Posted by: thinkthingsthrough | December 16, 2009 4:32 PM
The port can not handle the post panamax ships they are too big to come here. Steamship lines are very time sensitive with their schedule. It still takes 10 or more hours to come up the bay and the same amount going down. As in Norfolk or New York they just pull in unload and leave I am still trying to figure out the so called 2700 jobs They said Seagirt will create. they already have told the 58 state employees that are in the crane department that they are out of a job at the end of December. Also there are many M.I.T people who are also losing their jobs. AIG /Highstar yes AIG will be laughing all way to the bank at the expense of the Maryland taxpayers.
Posted by: ILA | December 16, 2009 5:03 PM
Both Mr. Hancock's column and most of the responders on this blog seem to me to miss the point of the significance of the Seagirt lease to Maryland's economy. You are evaluating the lease in terms of the financial rate of return to the State and the uncertainty of long term agreements. Instead, the lease will result in the completion of massive infrastructure developments enabling the Port to regain its competative advantage in containerized shipping by accomodating next generation container ships. This will result in thousands of high paying jobs and spin off businesses in the Maryland economy for many years.
The lease would not even be a topic of discussion if the State of Maryland had not had the foresight to finance and construct the Seagirt Marine Terminal and Hart Miller dredge disposal site more than 25 years ago. Without both of these facilities (and the 50 main channel enabled by Hart Miller) the Port would not even be in contention for serving the new container ships, falling further behind to other east coast terminals. These projects were financed by State of Maryland and Maryland Transportation Authority bonds exceeding in total over $100 Million. You make no mention of the fact that the up front payment to the State and MDTA repays this investment in full.
Maryland has been lucky to have elected and appointed leaders over the last three decades who have all maintained the State's commitment to the Port of Baltimore and the vision to finance this giant ecominic engine. The Board of Public Works acted responsibly in approving the lease.
Posted by: Marshall Rickert | December 18, 2009 4:57 PM