Headlines
Florida prison privatization push stalls despite big spending
CA: Big cities cautious about privatizing parking after Chicago’s effort
OH: Ohio DOT talks about privatizing rest stops
CO: Gov: Slow down privatizing workers comp insurer
AZ: Publishers, lawmakers wrangle over future of printed public notices
NH: Legislature directs agencies to use open source databases
How privatizing government shovels cash to parasitic corporations

News summaries
Florida prison privatization push stalls despite big spending
Millions of dollars in campaign contributions from for-profit prison companies may not be enough this year to push through a prison privatization plan that is a priority of Gov. Rick Scott and Republican legislative leaders.The push to privatize one-fifth of the state corrections facilities along with all inmate health care could net prison companies hundreds of millions of dollars in state contracts, and those companies have spent millions in the past year trying to win support for the plan. But Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, who made the prison outsourcing one of his top goals, put the bill on hold twice last week because he lacked the votes within his Republican caucus to pass it. Research by The Palm Beach Post shows that Boca Raton-based GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA, have contributed nearly $2 million to candidates and political parties since Scott’s election. Palm Beach Post

CA: Big cities cautious about privatizing parking after Chicago’s effort
Sacramento doesn’t have many role models to follow as it tries to auction off its parking garages and meters to help finance a new sports arena. Just two major U.S. cities – Chicago and Indianapolis – have completed such privatization deals. And the biggest one, in Chicago in 2008, was a public relations nightmare. Chicagoans were outraged when meter rates soared and the machines briefly malfunctioned. The city’s inspector general said the $1.15 billion price the city received was way too low. While the operating company says citizen anger has abated, the deal is still viewed in political circles as a mistake.
That fallout has spread around the country. Pittsburgh and several other cities backed away from privatizing their parking, partly out of fear of duplicating Chicago’s experience…Sacramento, though, is pushing ahead. Indeed, after a decade of false starts and botched initiatives, city officials have settled on the parking program as the foundation of a new arena that would keep the Sacramento Kings from fleeing…City officials saw what happened in Chicago and contend they can craft a deal that generates a lot of cash while protecting the interests of taxpayers, motorists and downtown businesses. Sacramento Bee

OH: Ohio DOT talks about privatizing rest stops
Last week, an Ohio Department of Transportation advisory panel voted unanimously to move forward on its plan to delay dozens of new construction projects throughout the state. The decision comes in the wake of a two billion dollar ODOT funding deficit. For now, ODOT said they will not raise the gas tax, the department’s primary source of revenue…The move would make Ohio the first state in the nation to privatize rest areas, something that could generate a significant annual income source…”My vision is that we would literally bulldoze down what is currently there and have so many acres of land available and we would have the private sector come in and put their stores in,” Wray explains. “We would have requirements that they would have to mow, put in restrooms, but we are trying to turn what is currently an expense into a revenue.” For now, any move to privatize the turnpike or rest areas is probably not going to come this year, an election year…And again, the public can weigh in on all of this during ODOT’s 45 day public comment period. Many have already spoken out. In fact, a separate citizen Facebook page has been created to generate support for the building of the second Innerbelt Bridge. NewsChannel5

CO: Gov: Slow down privatizing workers comp insurer
John Hickenlooper and Colorado’s only state-chartered workers compensation insurer have agreed to delay a proposal to privatize the company. Hickenlooper said Thursday more work needs to be done on the plan for Pinnacol Assurance…Pinnacol has had a rocky relationship with the state since it was challenged in 2011 over reports of lavish spending and excess profits, which some lawmakers said came from denying claims from injured workers. The company has denied those allegations. Last month, Pinnacol was criticized for running ads touting the benefits of privatization. KJCT8

AZ: Publishers, lawmakers wrangle over future of printed public notices
Continuing a string of similar bills in recent years, Rep. David W. Stevens, R-Sierra Vista, has proposed removing the requirement that statutory public notices be published in newspapers. HB 2403 would provide the option of putting a notice instead on “a designated site” online…Rick Edmonds, who researches business and journalism issues for the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., said newspaper publishers in many states face efforts to remove print requirements for statutory public notices. “The history though is that many of these things are proposed but there has never been a broad exemption to the requirement that notices be published [by newspapers],” he said. Arizona’s law, which predates the Internet, calls for notices authorized by law to be published in an English-language newspaper of general circulation. If a newspaper is printed daily, the notice must run four consecutive days. In a weekly newspaper, the notice must run for two consecutive weeks. Ginger Lamb, vice president and publisher of the Arizona Capitol Times, told lawmakers Thursday that running notices in print provides an independent third party to verify legitimacy as well as a permanent, secure archive of ads. Cronkite News

NH: Legislature directs agencies to use open source databases
The New Hampshire legislature voted in favor of requiring state agencies to use open source software to allow for better public access to government information. NH Liberty Alliance

How privatizing government shovels cash to parasitic corporations
Rather than solving problems with government, privatization often amplifies those issues to new extremes. Instead of unleashing market innovation, it often introduces new parasitic partners into the decision-making process. Instead of providing a check on the power of the government, it allows the state to circumvent constitutional and democratic accountability measures by merging with the private sector. And ultimately, the practice replaces the set of choices and constraints found in democracy, with another set found in the marketplace. Today’s political conversation is blind to these problems out of a mistaken faith in the efficiency and fundamental equality of markets, contrasted to the ineffectiveness and corruptibility of the state. What advocates miss is that the logic of markets creates private-sector coalitions capable of extracting just as much from taxpayers as the state. Corporations, lobbyists and other market actors can have just as much political agency as the government, and privatization can mobilize businesses to rewrite market practices. AlterNet