Headlines
OH: Privatizing government assets a growing trend
MI: Leasing of city assets could bring quick cash to Detroit
PA: Gov Corbett: I’d understand if Pitt wants to become private
FL: Move to privatize public libraries makes inroads in Florida
NY: Another battle in the war against public schools
ME: School choice, public money for private religious schools draw public to hearings
TX: DPS outsourced border security to private firm via no-bid contracts
SC: Proposal aims to privatize school buses
UK PM unveils plan to sell off the roads
OH: Privatizing government assets a growing trend
…“That big pot of money is very attractive,” said Richard Little, a senior fellow at the Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California. “The problem is, sometimes it’s like going to the pawn shop. You get what you can, not necessarily what it’s worth.” That is the fault that Hartmann and Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes find with the controversial Drake deal, under which UC Health paid the county $15 million for the Hartwell rehabilitation hospital’s buildings and land. Rhodes argues that the county sold “a valuable asset at a bargain basement price,” and Hartmann agrees the deal – which will help pay for the Bengals’ and Reds’ stadiums and restore a property tax credit for homeowners – was not a good one for taxpayers. “Even putting price aside, selling a valuable asset for what amounts to a one-year fix of the (stadiums’ funding) problem is poor policy,” Hartmann said. “It’s shortsighted.” Cincinnatti.com
MI: Leasing of city assets could bring quick cash to Detroit
… For the city of Detroit, leasing municipal assets could be a way to bring in cash while moving the costs of operations, maintenance and investment off the books. Two versions of draft consent agreements include the possibility of selling or disposing of city assets, and would bypass the anti-privatization ordinance…No matter who pulls the strings, experts say, private investment in municipal assets is increasingly popular for investors who see infrastructure as a safe market. Asset sales, according to Detroit’s City Charter, require approval by popular vote. Long-term leases, called concessions, are less problematic, though they are still constrained by the city’s anti-privatization ordinance, which restricts outsourcing work that could be done in-house, barring extensive documentation as to cost savings. Crain’s Detroit Business
PA: Gov Corbett: I’d understand if Pitt wants to become private
Gov. Tom Corbett told a University of Pittsburgh audience on Friday that he would be disappointed if the school became a private university in the face of continuing state budget cuts. “But I would understand if they had to do it,” Corbett told about 300 Pitt students and faculty members, many of whom questioned his proposal to reduce state subsidies to the school from $136.1 million this year to $95.2 million next year. Shortly before Corbett arrived, police escorted about two dozen protesters out of the university’s William Pitt Union as they chanted, “Stop the cuts!” to the beat of a bass drum..His proposed budget reductions, about 30 percent for Pitt, Penn State and Temple universities and 20 percent for the 14 State System of Higher Education universities, have prompted speculation that Pitt and Penn State could become private universities. Officials at Pitt and Penn State insist they want to maintain their state affiliations but are struggling, given reductions in state subsidies…The governor defended his reluctance to raise taxes to balance the budget. Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
FL: Move to privatize public libraries makes inroads in Florida
..The contract stipulates that LSSI keep all library staff at their current salaries for at least 6 months. Benefits however, are a different matter because those workers are no longer county employees…“There are many people who were in the Florida Retirement System and they’ve no longer in it so they lose that vesting.” Klroy said. “And some of the families have been unable to afford the new insurance packages they’ve been offered.” He said…He and other public library advocates worry that private companies, responsible primarily to their shareholders, don’t have an incentive to invest in new materials and technology. They’re also concerned that the company may cut back on library hours and services such as computer, art and adult literacy classes and kid’s reading programs. Faye Roberts, President of the Florida Library Association said the statewide group is also concerned about issues of accountability and transparency. “Who’s in charge?” Roberts asked. “Is it an elected official or is it someone whose primary focus, as a private company, would need to be on making a profit.”…Still some opponents, like Ed Kilroy, worry that the move toward private libraries fundamentally endangers one of America’s oldest public institutions. “It’s different in Europe and in parts of South America. They have more of a paid library where you have to pay to use the library.” Kilroy said. “So the public library is truly an American institution and community control of the library is part of that institution.” WMFE
NY: Another battle in the war against public schools
The “parent trigger” must be understood within the current context of vilifying public education. Today, there is a national effort to privatize public schools by turning them over to privately managed charters. This movement is financed by some of the nation’s richest foundations — the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation.
Collaboration — not hostile takeovers — is the most effective way to improve their public schools…A parent trigger — a phrase that is inherently menacing — enables 51percent of parents in any school to close the school or hand it over to private management. This is inherently a terrible idea. Why should 51 percent of people using a public service have the power to privatize it? Should 51 percent of the people in Central Park on any given day have the power to transfer it to private management? Should 51 percent of those riding a public bus have the power to privatize it? Public schools don’t belong to the 51 percent of the parents whose children are enrolled this year. They don’t belong to the teachers or administrators. They belong to the public. They were built with public funds. The only legitimate reason to close a neighborhood public school is under-enrollment. If a school is struggling, it needs help from district leaders, not a closure notice. Parents in Florida got it right earlier this month. By organizing, they stopped a parent trigger law. No Florida-based parent group supported it. By their actions, they recognized that collaboration — not hostile takeovers — is the most effective way to improve their public schools. New York Times
ME: School choice, public money for private religious schools draw public to hearings
One bill proposes an open enrollment program, in which schools can decide to become “schools of choice” and accept students from outside their districts. Students and families could enroll their students in these “schools of choice” without needing permission from the district in which they reside. The second bill removes a sentence from current state law that says public dollars cannot be used to fund private, religious schools. Currently any students can attend a religious school, but they must pay tuition. Opponents, including several high school students, told lawmakers on the Legislature’s Education Committee the school choice proposal would hurt public schools, particularly those in rural Maine and could lead to some closing as state aid is shifted from public to private schools. Bangor Daily News
TX: DPS outsourced border security to private firm via no-bid contracts
A little-known private defense contractor from Virginia has quietly received about $20 million under a series of no-bid contracts with the State of Texas to develop its border security strategies, an effort that included shaping the state’s public message on the increasingly controversial nature and extent of violence spilling into Texas from Mexico. According to an internal Department of Public Safety memo, the role of Abrams Learning and Information Systems Inc. expanded dramatically after Gov. Rick Perry, then in the midst of a campaign for governor, ordered an acceleration of border security operations that the state wasn’t equipped to handle on its own….State Sen. Jose Rodriguez, D-El Paso, said he plans to call for an investigation into the state’s relationship with ALIS, saying that the state had outsourced vital security operations to a firm with “less accountability and less transparency than I would expect from state agencies.” The Austin American-Statesman
SC: Proposal aims to privatize school buses
Currently, South Carolina is the only state in the nation that owns and operates its own school bus fleet. That fleet, all agree, is in pitiful shape. The average bus is about 14 years old and has more than 200,000 miles. Advocates say getting the state out of the school bus business will benefit both the state – in over its head, running a massive bus system – as well as the local school districts, who will gain control over bus routes, bus stops and get new buses. It also will get the state out of business that it has no business being in. The State
UK PM unveils plan to sell off the roads
David Cameron will clear the way for a multibillion-pound semi-privatisation of trunk roads and motorways as he announces plans to allow sovereign wealth funds from countries such as China to lease roads in England. Just 48 hours before the budget, the prime minister will give a speech calling for radical action to improve Britain’s infrastructure, which is falling behind those of key competitors in Europe…The prime minister’s plan, modelled on the funding of the mains water and sewage network, would see sovereign wealth funds and pension funds given the right to lease roads over a long period. They would be set a series of targets to, for example, reduce congestion and carry out improvements. George Osborne recently travelled to China to persuade the world’s largest fiscal-surplus country to invest in Britain’s infrastructure…There will be no tolls on the existing road network. But if the road companies create new capacity – by adding lanes to existing roads or building new roads altogether – then they would be entitled to charge for their use. The Guardian