First, naming rights aren't used to finance maintenance. The money from naming rights is usually just icing on the cake. The bridges aren't going to fall into disrepair bc Best Buy goes into bankruptcy.

Secondly, Govt and industry getting in bed together isn't unheard of in urban development. Most of the following information comes from a biography of Robert Moses I've been reading. This man is almost singely responsible for the way NYC looks today. The book is "The Power Broker. Robert Moses and the Rise and Fall of New York"

Basically, many of the bridges, tunnels, highways and parkways in NYC were built by special corporations called public authorities. Basically, the city or state govt appoint the board of a new corporation whose specific goal was a particular improvement of the city or state infrastructure. The p.a. would sell bonds to banks to raise money to build the bridge, then the tolls from the bridges would be used to pay off those bonds. When the bonds were paid off, the p.a. would turn the structure over to the govt and the people.

The growth of NYC meant that tolls collected far exceeded projections and the improvemnts would be paid off in a fraction of the time expected. Toll bridges and tunnels in new york are MONEY MAKERS. Instead of turning the structures over, Moses worked the system so that he used revenue from existing structures was used to finance newer, more expensive structures.


I think much of NYC's infrastructure is still owned and maintained by Public Authorities so I really doubt any money the city makes from naming rights will be earmarked for bridge or tunnel use.