VA: Gov may abandon his proposal to privatize liquor stores
FL: Senate has new prison privatization proposal
FL: Editorial: Keep public water for public uses
AZ: Legislators approve 2nd private school tuition tax credit
LA: Gov likely to expand school vouchers
Robert Reich: Public institutions suffer as spending falls
News summaries
VA: Gov may abandon his proposal to privatize liquor stores
There was a time when Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell was adamant he would bring back his proposal to privatize the state’s liquor stores. But now, not so much…McDonnell, as he continues to roll out policy proposals for the legislative session, declined to say whether the proposal would return this year or before he leaves the governor’s mansion in 2014.McDonnell’s proposal to dismantle the state’s long-standing monopoly on distilled spirits was killed last year after he spent months lobbying lawmakers and residents. Washington Post
FL: Senate has new prison privatization proposal
After being rebuffed by a judge for its effort to privatize several prisons because of the way lawmakers went about it, the Legislature will try again to shed several prisons, this time doing it in statute. The Senate Rules Committee on Friday quietly released a proposal and scheduled a hearing for this coming Wednesday to discuss the proposed committee bill (SPB 7172), which would require the Department of Corrections to privatize all prisons and other correctional facilities in 18 counties in the Southern half of the state…The bill would require the department to privatize all prison facilities, including annexes, prisons, and work release centers in Manatee, Hardee, Indian River, Okeechobee, Highlands, St. Lucie, DeSoto, Sarasota, Charlotte, Glades, Martin, Palm Beach, Hendry, Lee, Collier, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. Orlando Sentinel
FL: Editorial: Keep public water for public uses
Florida law considers treated wastewater a public resource. Cities sell reclaimed water to residents to irrigate lawns or to commercial enterprises for industrial uses. Reclaimed is also used to recharge the aquifer and to keep saltwater from creeping into fresh, inland waters. The public benefits are direct: Users get a cheaper water source and entire regions of the state draw less from ground and surface waters, helping to preserve Florida’s natural habitat. But HB 639 expressly exempts reclaimed water as a state asset. It transfers control of reclaimed to the utilities that produce it, effectively ending any oversight role by the regional water management districts. The water would no longer have to be used for a public purpose, and cities and utilities could sell it to whomever they chose. This is a radical policy change that is completely at odds with why reclaimed was developed as an alternative resource in the first place…Young’s bill undermines a decades-long effort to manage Florida’s water supply in a more sustainable, comprehensive way. It is a wholesale giveaway of a precious public asset that could easily provide more than one-fourth of the state’s water needs. It is unfortunate that Tampa is supporting the legislation for its own self-interest; Young would better serve her district and the state by creating incentives to expand the reclaimed distribution system. That would be far better than privatizing water. Tampa Bay Times
AZ: Legislators approve 2nd private school tuition tax credit
State lawmakers moved Thursday to let Arizonans divert more of what they owe in taxes to help students attend private and parochial schools, and to ease the legal requirements for those schools. East Valley Tribune
LA: Gov likely to expand school vouchers
When Gov. Bobby Jindal pushed through New Orleans’ school-voucher program four years ago, political interest in using taxpayer money to send students to private schools had waned across the country. School-choice advocates had suffered several stinging defeats, causing some to throw their weight behind charter schools, which generally receive more bipartisan support. Now, as officials expect Jindal to begin an effort to expand Louisiana’s voucher program, the national landscape has changed dramatically. Although charter schools continue to dwarf vouchers in terms of overall growth, vouchers have rebounded on the national political and educational scene in the last year. In 2011, more than 30 states introduced bills that would use taxpayer dollars to send children to privately run schools, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. That’s up more than 300 percent from the previous year, when only nine voucher bills were introduced…Jindal would join the scores of GOP governors and lawmakers who have proposed new or expanded voucher programs in recent months, taking advantage of Republican majorities gained in the 2010 elections. The Times-Picayune
Robert Reich: Public institutions suffer as spending falls
A society is embodied most visibly in public institutions – public schools, public libraries, public transportation, public hospitals, public parks, public museums, public recreation, public universities and so on.
But much of what’s called “public” today is increasingly private…Much of the rest of what’s considered “public” has become so shoddy that those who can afford to do so find private alternatives. As public schools deteriorate, the upper middle-class and wealthy send their kids to private ones. ..Yet in recent years, the idea of the public good has faded. “We’re all in it together” has been replaced by “you’re on your own” – as global capital outsources American jobs abroad, the very rich take home an almost unprecedented portion of total earnings, and a new wave of immigrants is described by demagogues as “them.” Not even Democrats still use the phrase “the public good.” Public goods are now, at best, “public investments.” Public institutions have morphed into “public-private partnerships” or, for Republicans, simply “vouchers.” Mitt Romney speaks derisively of what he terms the Democrats’ “entitlement” society in contrast to his “opportunity” society. At least he still envisions a society. But he hasn’t explained how ordinary Americans will be able to take advantage of good opportunities without good public schools, affordable higher education, good roads and adequate health care…Only in one respect is Romney right. America has created a whopping entitlement – for the biggest Wall Street banks and their top executives, who, unlike most of the rest of us, are no longer allowed to fail. We’re losing public goods available to all, supported by the tax payments of all and especially the better-off. In its place, we have private goods available to the very rich, supported by the rest of us. Even Lady Thatcher would have been appalled. San Francisco Chronicle