Private Party Cost overruns and Public Subsidy

Portland Oregon's city council is surprised that the OHSU tram being built for $45 million dollars is three times what the initial estimate was three years ago. They should not be.
It has been well known that anytime public money is involved the price will ALWAYS go up over estimate - since every public project is a test in social engineering in Portland it falls into the "Jurassic Park" mentality of - "spare no expense."

The true way to fund items is to see if a fully PRIVATE firm will take all the risks of a project for someone that as an aside benefits the public. Once it is built, the government should then look at the project and see if it did indeed benefit the public at large and then give money to the private firm as a reward for building something at its own risk that benefited the public. Just never guarantee that they get money from the government for any project.

If a private firm had to fund the whole tram would it have been built by OHSU? No, but since the city said they would fund it. For the city to leave the project half completed as an example of failure of the government to manage any project means the money will be found to finish it and then trump it up as a great social, economic,environmental success.
BTW, at the top and bottom of the tram there is NO PARKING spaces at all for the public. So if you want to get to OSHU  you have to drive up the hill to get there. There is no traffic savings at all to the city. Only benefits are to the people who work at OHSU and need to visit their buildings at the bottom or vice versa. (OHSU people at the bottom will have parking spaces I think. (I hope they do, never have seen any plan stating that they did.)
Ah, to live in a progressive city where public funding helps all business but those who need it. OHSU is largely a publicly funded research medical university. After all, to open up a business in Portland can take up more than $50,000 in fees for a simple business to move across the street.