Headlines
OH: Turnpike director defends study on privatizing toll road
NC: GOP rush to privatize demeans our public assets
LA: Privatization affecting La. employment
FL: Kill prison privatization? Not so fast, Gov Scott says
CA: Calif. weak on oversight of for-profit colleges
GOP not giving up on Medicare privatization
Profiting from prisons
News summaries
OH: Turnpike director defends study on privatizing toll road
The Ohio Turnpike Commission ‘s executive director is defending the state’s approval of a multimillion-dollar study of the turnpike and the possibility of privatizing the 241-mile toll road. “Everyone needs to be open-minded,” Rick Hodges told the newspaper, cautioning detractors that no decisions have been made to privatize the turnpike. Hodges told the newspaper that he doesn’t favor any particular option. The Ohio Controlling Board approved a $2.85 million contract for a study by KPMG Corporate Finance. Columbus Business First
NC: GOP rush to privatize demeans our public assets
If you are looking for a perfect example of what’s wrong in Raleigh these days, the legislative report released last week calling for the privatization of state attractions and the closing of historic sites is a good place to start. The report was commissioned by legislative leaders and prepared by the Program Evaluation Division of the General Assembly with the pithy title, “Operational Changes for State Attractions Could Yield $2 Million Annually and Reduce Reliance on the State.” The “operational changes” that create the savings include proposals such as closing the five-year-old Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City, privatizing the N.C. Zoo and state aquariums, closing several state parks for months at a time, raising admission fees and ending discounts for senior citizens. Those recommendations are troubling enough, but “reducing the reliance” on the state is an odd goal for a report on important public institutions. It’s simply another way to shred the government the Republicans loathe and turn over more of its functions to the private for-profit market. It’s not only happening with tourist attractions, of course, it’s happening with public schools, higher education and health care. There is talk of expanding private prisons and eventually turning over the administration of some toll roads to private operators. Greensboro News & Record
LA: Privatization affecting La. employment
Bobby Jindal is proposing new rounds of privatization in his latest budget proposal. The shift has forced thousands of people from their jobs, a consequence the Jindal administration tends to gloss over as it touts the lowest number of state workers in decades. Care for the developmentally disabled, ferries to transport people across the Mississippi River and the lock-up and monitoring of criminals housed in an Avoyelles Parish prison would be farmed out to private businesses under the governor’s 2012-13 budget plans. The outsourcing of services is an easy way for Jindal to trim state operating costs and to show his conservative, cost-cutting credentials around the nation. But the administration seems to dislike acknowledging the side effect of privatization in a down economy: hundreds of workers given pink slips. Opelousas Daily World
FL: Kill prison privatization? Not so fast, Gov Scott says
He told a group of reporters that he is going to explore ways he can privatize prisons unilaterally. Talk that the governor has the power to privatize areas of government was sprinkled in debate as senators slugged it out over the prison privatization. Florida Times-Union
PA: Officials say privatizing prisons not an option in Pennsylvania
Officials here say full privatization — which Ohio did with one of its prisons last year — is off the table. “We’re reviewing everything, but the full and total privatization of an SCI (state correctional institution) is not something we’re looking at,” said state Department of Corrections spokeswoman Susan Bensinger. Corbett’s proposal to freeze prison spending at just less than $1.9 billion puts unprecedented pressure on the corrections system, said state Rep. Tom Caltagirone, D-Berks County. Lawmakers are discussing ways to cut the prison population, such as relaxing mandatory minimum sentences, speeding up drug and alcohol treatment programs, and streamlining the probation and parole process. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
CA: Calif. weak on oversight of for-profit colleges
California’s recently formed Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education has significant weaknesses in its oversight of for-profit colleges, advocacy groups told lawmakers at a hearing this week. California Watch
GOP not giving up on Medicare privatization
Republicans may be backing off their famously toxic plan by Paul Ryan to privatize Medicare, but they’ve doubled down on the broader concept and are taking strategic steps to get there over time. TPM
Profiting from prisons
Early this year, the United Methodist Church Board of Pension and Health Benefits voted to withdraw nearly $1 million in stocks from two private prison companies, the GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). The decision by the largest faith-based pension fund in the United States came in response to concerns expressed last May by the church’s immigration task force and a group of national activists. “Our board simply felt that it did not want to profit from the business of incarcerating others,” said Colette Nies, managing director of communications for the board. “Our concern was not with how the companies manage or operate their business, but with the service that the companies offer,” Nies added. “We believe that profiting from incarceration is contrary to Church values.” It was an important success for a slew activists across the country who are pushing investors and institutions to divest in the private prison industry. The National Prison Divestment Campaign, launched last spring, includes a broad coalition of immigrant rights, criminal justice and other organizations targeting private prison companies like CCA and the GEO Group, the two largest private prison corporations in the United States. The Crime Report