Headlines
House transportation bill lets states privatize rest areas
Private prison corporation offers cash in exchange for state prisons
FL: Prison privatization dies in Senate 21-19
MI: Michigan’s hostile takeover
CA: Privatize everything in the universe?
CA: Sacramento council votes to privatize parking
NC: State eyeing privatization for aquariums

News summaries
House transportation bill lets states privatize rest areas
A little-noticed provision of the House transportation bill would allow states to privatize interstate rest areas, open them up to advertisers, and let them sell a variety of goods “serving the traveling public” — which under the bill’s definition, includes lottery machines. The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the bill, which will face a tough road to becoming law, later this week.  Critics charge that privatizing interstate rest areas, which are generally prohibited from selling commercial goods and services under federal law, would harm gas stations and convenience stores at interchanges…Dan Gilligan, president of the Petroleum Marketers Association of America, said he was concerned that maps and lottery machines could be a first step to eventually opening up rest areas to a far wider range of business activities. His organization represents companies that currently operate gas stations along interstates, but at interchanges and full highway exits. Huffington Post

Private prison corporation offers cash in exchange for state prisons
As state governments wrestle with massive budget shortfalls, a Wall Street giant is offering a solution: cash in exchange for state property. Prisons, to be exact. Corrections Corporation of America, the nation’s largest operator of for-profit prisons, has sent letters recently to 48 states offering to buy up their prisons as a remedy for “challenging corrections budgets.” In exchange, the company is asking for a 20-year management contract, plus an assurance that the prison would remain at least 90 percent full, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Huffington Post.  The move reflects a significant shift in strategy for the private prison industry, which until now has expanded by building prisons of its own or managing state-controlled prisons. It also represents an unprecedented bid for more control of state prison systems….But estimated savings often come down to how those calculations are made, and outside researchers have questioned the numbers. In Arizona, for example, a 2010 report from the state’s auditor general showed that it cost the state more to house prisoners in private facilities than public prisons after factoring in administrative costs and adjusting for the types of medical care provided to less healthy inmates who tended to be housed in public facilities. And in Florida, where lawmakers this week could decide whether to privatize more than two dozen state prisons, reports about private prisons from the state’s legislative research office note, “cost savings estimates are subject to caveats and should be evaluated cautiously.” Huffington Post

FL: Prison privatization dies in Senate 21-19
A massive expansion of private prisons in Florida collapsed in the Senate Tuesday as nine Republicans joined a dozen Democrats in handing a setback to Senate leaders and a victory to state workers. As a result, the state will not undertake what would have been the single greatest expansion of prison privatization in U.S. history, affecting 27 prisons and work camps in 18 counties and displacing more than 3,500 correctional officers.  Senate leaders immediately said they would have to cut education and health care programs by $16.5 million, the amount privatization would have saved in the first year… Tuesday’s vote was a triumph for a rebellious group of Republicans who rejected supporters’ arguments that for-profit prisons would save tax dollars and increase efficiency. All 12 Democrats also voted no, putting the minority party in the unaccustomed role of being on the winning side…Senators debated privatization for nearly three hours, and opponents’ floor speeches often showed more passion. Rather than talk about numbers, they talked about people, such as the treatment of correctional officers, whose starting salary is $34,000 a year and who have not received an across-the-board pay raise for the past six years.”What’s wrong with state employees?” said Sen. Dennis Jones, R-Seminole. “We should be taking care of them, rather than kicking them under the bus.” Tampa Bay Times

MI: Michigan’s hostile takeover
A new “emergency” law backed by right-wing think tanks is turning Michigan cities over to powerful managers who can sell off city hall, break union contracts, privatize services—and even fire elected officials. When the city of Pontiac, Michigan, shut down its fire department last Christmas Eve, city councilman Kermit Williams learned about it in the morning paper. “Nobody reports to me anymore,” Williams says. “It just gets reported in the press.” This was just the latest in a series of radical changes in the city, where elected officials such as Williams have been replaced by a single person with unprecedented control over the city’s operation and budget.  

Gov. Rick Snyder put Louis Schimmel in charge of Pontiac last September, invoking Public Act 4, a recent law that lets the governor name appointees to take over financially troubled cities and enact drastic austerity measures. Under the law, passed last March, these emergency managers can nullify labor contracts, privatize public services, sell off city property, and even dismiss elected officials…Michigan’s emergency-manager law is the centerpiece of the fiscal program enacted by state Republicans after they took over the Legislature and governor’s mansion in early 2011. The law’s supporters say it allows for a more efficient and nimble response to the budget crisis confronting local governments in the wake of the housing crash and near collapse of the auto industry. Critics are seeking to block and repeal what they call an illegal power grab meant to usurp local governments and break up public-sector unions. “We haven’t seen anything this severe anywhere else in the country,” says Charles Monaco, a spokesman for the Progressive States Network, a New York-based advocacy group. “There’s been nothing in other states where a budget measure overturns the democratic vote.” Williams says emergency managers are able to enact draconian policies that would cost most city officials their jobs: “They couldn’t get elected if they tried.” Mother Jones

CA: Privatize everything in the universe?
Michelle Rhee and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson are leading the charge locally and throughout the country to privatize public education and bust unions…I wrote this song, “Privatize Everything,” back in 2000. The song was meant as political satire, but unfortunately, many of these lyrics have already become reality in recent years…Ocean conservation management has been privatized under the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative’s creation of so-called marine protected areas in California that fail to protect the ocean from oil spills and drilling, pollution, military testing, corporate aquaculture, wind and wave energy project and all other uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering. Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the President of the Western States Petroleum Association, chairs the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force that imposed the “marine protected areas” that went into effect in Southern California waters on January 1, 2012. The water in Central Valley rivers and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is being privatized though the Obama and Brown administration Bay Delta Plan (BDCP) to build the peripheral canal, designed to increase water exports to corporate agribusiness interest. Bay Area Indymedia

CA: Sacramento council votes to privatize parking
The Sacramento City Council unanimously voted to move ahead with plans to privatize city parking assets Tuesday night.  The motion, which passed 9-0, requests bids from companies that want to take over the city’s parking. The city believes it could raise up to $240 million if it handed over revenue from city parking to a private company for the next 50 years. The money would go towards construction costs for building a new sports and entertainment complex, which is estimated at $400 million. News10.net

NC: State eyeing privatization for aquariums
Privatizing the state-owned aquariums’ operations and implementing other management changes for tourism attractions could save the state almost $2 million each year, according to a government oversight report released Tuesday….Recommendations include seeking public-private partnerships for the state’s three aquariums and zoo; closing historic sites for a couple of days each week; and studying visitation data to determine whether state parks should close for several months in the winter…North Carolina is the only Southeastern state that owns and operates an aquarium or a zoo, and Minnesota is the only other state in the country that owns and operates a zoo at all, the report states. StarNewsOnline