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Originally Posted by mezzanine
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Thanks to the Musqueam for saving the government from itself. These sales and leasebacks are just an accounting trick to temporally reduce deficits (or in this case, even worse, fund tax cuts) by selling assets. It typically ends up costing taxpayers more over the long term but the governments that did it will be long gone by then. They don't call them the Cons for nothing.
Pretty much all the Campbell government did was figure out how to dispose government assets and try and move liabilities from debt to operational expenses. They got called on a lot of this.
Maybe governments should be required to highlight their balance sheet including net changes in assets and liabilities. This might encourage them not to play accounting tricks.
In Arizona, they actually sold their capital building a few years back and are now in the process of buying it back. Turns out it wasn't the deal they thought it was.