Smart Tan is always saying that if pharmaceutical companies could sell sunshine, they would in a heartbeat. It looks like one municipality is considering selling it themselves. Jerry Sanders, the mayor of San Diego, recently proposed that the city should sell its “sunshine rights” and then lease those rights back over time. According to the San Diego Reader, Sanders believes this arrangement could help balance the city’s budget.

“When people think of San Diego, they think of sunshine,” Sanders says in the article. “I’m here to tell you we can make money off that.”

This isn’t the first time that a government has considered a sale-leaseback on assets. In 2010 Arizona sold some of its legislature buildings, which they now lease, in order to raise cash in the short term.

“We’ll still enjoy all the benefits of the sun — warmth, light, unlimited free tanning — so why not sell to the highest bidder?” Sanders asked.

City Councilman Carl DeMaio seems willing to entertain the idea. “As the Council’s self-described taxpayer watchdog, I’ll have to give the mayor’s plan a thorough sniff-sniffing,” he says in the article. “But on first glance, I do like that it commits money away from city employees.”

Read the full article at the San Diego Reader