Headlines
FL: Editorial: Senate disregards perils of privatization
FL: Privatizing prisons plan faces backlash
FL: Bill to fine sports teams for not housing homeless in tax supported stadiums
NY: Public college, private dorm
GA: $1 million price tag, internal memo may doom Augusta’s privatization plan
CA: UC Davis students take over vacant campus building
Commentary: Halt the push to privatize

News summaries
FL: Editorial: Senate disregards perils of privatization
Florida Senate leaders claim their end run around a judge’s ruling in an effort to quickly privatize South Florida prisons is all about saving money. But they aren’t willing to back up their rhetoric with an economic analysis that would be shared with with taxpayers. The Republican leaders’ arrogant efforts to exempt the Legislature from most of a state law that requires rigorous public vetting of privatization deals would encourage one-sided deals at best and invite corruption at worst. Floridians deserve government in the sunshine…So far, the Florida House has not filed companion legislation, and House Speaker Dean Cannon hasn’t signaled whether he will support the measures. He should side with history and the lessons learned by former Gov. Bush and a previous Legislature. If privatization makes sense, prove it with a business case, in public, every time.  Tampa Bay Times

FL: Privatizing prisons plan faces backlash
Opponents are reviving past privatization fiascoes, including overbilling by prison operators and botched outsourcing of prison food services and inmate medical care. A state audit in 2005 found that two leading private prison firms, Geo Group and Corrections Corp. of America, overbilled the state by $13 million, and a federal grand jury is investigating construction of the state’s newest private prison, Blackwater River in Milton. Tampa Bay Times

FL: Bill to fine sports teams for not housing homeless in tax supported stadiums
Back in 1988, Florida legislators passed a law that would allow sports stadiums to collect about $2 million per year from the government to build new shiny stadiums. Tucked into the statutes is an obscure homeless shelter provision, which has mostly been ignored for 23 years, and could be a $300 million “Oops” for stadiums.  The law states that sports teams that accept taxpayer dollars to build facilities must house the homeless on off-nights, and lawmakers have brought it back from the dead in a pair of bills gaining steam this legislative session. Senate Bill 816, which would make teams and stadium owners return millions of taxpayer dollars if they can’t prove that they’ve been operating as a haven for the homeless on non-event nights,  passed its first committee in the Senate on Monday with a unanimous vote..The teams, which include the Tampa Bay Rays and the Miami Heat, receive about $166,000 per month for a period of 30 years. Some stadium owners have already accepted more than $30 million in tax credits, and could be on the hook to refund that money if the bill passes. Based on the dozens of homeless people who sleep on the street two blocks west of AmericanAirlines Arena in downtown Miami, it doesn’t appear that a homeless shelter is functioning at the glitzy home of the Miami Heat. Miami Herald

NY: Public college, private dorm
With state budgets tight and demand for a college education at a high point, public universities across the country are increasingly turning to the private sector to build and finance on-campus dormitories.
Even before the recession, states found that companies that specialize in student housing could build residence halls more rapidly and cheaply than universities could. They can ease the burden of being a landlord. And perhaps most important, these partnerships free capital for facilities like classrooms and laboratories. But as bad economic times make these arrangements even more appealing, the new efforts raise questions about how private ownership of dorms will affect student life and costs in years to come…Although proponents of private partnerships point to lower costs for construction and operation, those savings are not necessarily passed on to students. A room at the Heights, for example, costs about $1,000 more a semester than a room in Montclair State’s other dorms. “These things are often sold as savings, but they don’t often result in savings,” said Edward P. St. John, an education professor at the University of Michigan and an editor of “Privatization and Public Universities,” published in 2006. The New York Times

GA: $1 million price tag, internal memo may doom Augusta’s privatization plan
Commissioners recently all but rubber stamped a plan to privatize Augusta’s human resources and payroll department. The vote gave the administrator the authority to put together an agreement with ADP.
We got our hands on two pages of supposed issues with ADP that were compiled by the city administrator’s office.The list makes mention of workers dropped from health care coverage. “We have had cancellation in every vendor group, without explanation; the only common denominator is ADP,” reads No. 13 on the list…ADP personnel are described as “sometimes combative,” employees supposedly “don’t trust the automation of benefits,” and there are complaints about the inability to instantly fix problems. The list was put together by the city administrator’s office…Did we mention the $1 million price tag for implementation? 12 News Augusta

CA: UC Davis students take over vacant campus building
A small group of University of California students have taken over a vacant building on the Davis campus…Graduate student Geoffrey Wildanger said they will use the building to fight Chancellor Linda Katehi’s attempts to privatize the campus by offering free classes and other services to students. Two campus student assistance-counseling programs were scheduled to move into the cottage in the next two weeks. KCRA Sacramento

Commentary: Halt the push to privatize
Will the political genius who invented privatization please step forward so those of us who know what a flop it is can haul out our rotten tomatoes and dispose of them accordingly? Thank you! Privatization is a movement now virtually overtaking cash-strapped city, county and state governments. Supporters claim that privatizing services formerly provided by government — ranging from prisons to parking meters — would save the taxpaying public money. We now have ample evidence it does exactly the opposite. So it’s time to stop privatizing more government services. It’s time to refuse to renew or even to abrogate ridiculously long contracts with private-sector companies to provide those services. Here’s one example of the counterproductive outcomes experienced by governments that have privatized services. This comes from the website Inthepublicinterest.org: A report from Wisconsin’s Legislative Audit Bureau revealed that the state’s Department of Transportation “wasted more than $1 million by outsourcing almost half of its engineering work to private contractors” over the past five year. The audit found that state workers could have done about 60 percent of these outsourced jobs at a lower cost, which would have saved the state $1.2 million….It’s possible that some privatization deals save taxpayers money. But considering all the reports of outrageous overcharges, crony contracting, decreases in the quality of services and so on, a more logical conclusion is that privatization has run its course and has got to go. — Bonnie Erbe  Newsday