Chapter 244 Highway Trust

The internal debate within Microsoft continues.

Among the three elders, Bill is completely uninterested in the operating system. He sees it as a waste of time and energy, and thinks it's easy to mess up, potentially tarnishing their reputation as "BASIC development gurus" that they've already established.

On the other hand, Ken believes firmly that Microsoft should have its own operating system product. Ideally, they should design and develop it themselves. Only with a visible, quality product can they truly capture the market. After all, who cares about backend development? Ordinary users only care if the product they buy is good or not.

Caught between these two, Paul is in a tough spot!

On one hand, both arguments have their merits. Logically, after Carter's performance, Paul personally leans towards Ken's viewpoint. However, Bill, who isn't interested, is the big boss with a whopping 60% ownership. Paul can't openly oppose him if he's set against the operating system. So, for now, Paul decides to set aside the discussion about the operating system and focuses on preparing to deal with IBM, while also completing the Apple order.

Meanwhile, after three days of communicating over the phone about the road construction investment plan, Carter received a call back from Benjamin. According to the call, Columbus is very enthusiastic about this highway and the local government is highly supportive.

Especially after communication between the Columbus city government and the Bennington base, Bennington expressed that having this highway would make it much easier to transport personnel and materials to the coast for shipping. Especially for small-scale transportation, using the railroad isn't very cost-effective.

Upon receiving this reply, Carter expressed understanding. These past few days, while he was having fun and relaxing with Jim, he was also busy. On one hand, he was studying materials about Japan, and on the other hand, he was researching Georgia's situation to better estimate the profits of this road.

Through this research, Carter learned that originally, the capital of Georgia wasn't Atlanta, but Savannah. However, due to poor land transportation conditions near Savannah, and the rise of the railway in Atlanta, the economy flourished, leading to the capital being transferred from Savannah to Atlanta.

In the original transportation from Bennington to Savannah, the railway from Georgia to Savannah port was used. For large quantities of goods and personnel, the railway was undoubtedly more cost-effective. However, for smaller quantities, if one had to drive to Savannah by road, they'd have to take a big detour, either through the northern or southern part of the state, entering Savannah via north-south highways.

So, having a highway running east-west directly to Savannah would also be welcome for Bennington. Columbus also hoped for such a road to reduce their city's transportation costs and shorten transportation distances.

Without this road, if they wanted to develop import and export trade, they'd have to provide considerable financial subsidies to the corresponding companies to compensate for their transportation costs. However, with this road, despite the toll period seeming to cost about the same, they'd still have to provide subsidies for development. But once the toll period is over, the financial expenditure saved by Columbus annually would be no small amount!

In this situation, hearing that someone was willing to take over and build this road, and that several cities including Douglas, Pearson, and Aguirre jointly guaranteed it, even if this person had a problem or went bankrupt halfway through construction, there were others to share the risk. After some thought, the mayor of Columbus, George Maxwell, quickly agreed to join the joint guarantee.

It only needed some discussion in the council, and after reporting, it could be executed!

In Benjamin's words, the possibility of this matter passing was very high! Basically, within a week, there should be a definite answer. With the matter progressing to this point, the first step of the road construction project was considered successfully sold.

The second step was to finance $160 million. As for financing, Carter wasn't too worried.

Because in matters like road construction, there are usually multiple sources of funds. Taking the highway that Carter planned to build from Columbus to Savannah, which is about 430 kilometers long, as an example, this is a typical intrastate highway.

Local finances will contribute a portion of the funds for the construction. During the construction phase, the local finances generally won't contribute too much, especially in the current economic downturn and when the road construction plan is initiated by private individuals. However, in the later road maintenance stage, the local finances are usually responsible. This money comes from the additional fees on fuel, which is outside of taxation. So for Carter, he just needed to figure out how to build this road; as for maintenance in the future, that wasn't his concern. And during this execution process, many people should have heard of something called the "Highway Trust Fund."

However, the Highway Trust Fund mainly covers the expenses of interstate highways and national highways, as well as maintenance expenses. In intrastate highways like this, there's hardly any hope for funding from the Highway Trust Fund, so Carter can only hope that the Columbus city government will contribute a little more.

These contributions will collectively form a new highway trust. Unlike the Highway Trust Fund, this highway trust is a pure trust product.

All funds will be deposited into the account provided by the trust company, entrusting these assets to the trust company to manage. The investment direction is also very clear: road construction!

After receiving the funds, the trust company will begin looking for construction units and start operating these funds for road construction. Finally, the revenue generated by the road will be sent to the trust company first, and then the trust company will distribute it to the beneficiaries based on the pre-agreed benefit ratio.

Here's where it gets interesting: according to the 1913 Federal Reserve Act, national banks can participate in trust business; and subsequently, various state laws stipulate that state banks can engage in trust business. In other words, the so-called trust company, the trustee, can be entirely handled by Black Bank.

With this, Carter is completely confident that he can get this project to his own DOG Construction. As the boss of DOG Construction, he can profit from construction fees.

And he can secretly make some money first!

As for the shady dealings, there are none!

To set up a trust business, Black Bank will face supervision from the trust department. All accounts, management, and accounting must be conducted separately from the bank's other businesses.

So even if the money is initially received by Black Bank, other investors aren't worried about the money being misappropriated. As the trustee, Carter can only influence the choice of construction unit.

As long as this effect is achieved, Carter is satisfied!