Headlines
Taxpayers paying for roads — twice: Sen Jeff Bingaman
FOX News: Public works projects are great! (When they’re in a state governed by Chris Christie)
Spending by the major charter management organizations
IL: Chicago parking meter company wants more money, mayor balks
IL: Editorial: Lesson of crummy meter deal? Go slow.
IL: Prompt Ambulance takes over East Chicago’s EMS
LA: Caddo Parrish looks to outsource alternative education
WA: Privatized liquor sales: what will happen?

Taxpayers paying for roads — twice: Sen Jeff Bingaman
…Today Indiana has 157 fewer miles of highway the public is responsible for operating. One might assume its share of federal highway maintenance dollars would have been reduced to reflect the change. Not so. This year, Indiana received nearly $900 million in highway maintenance funds — the same amount it would have received had it never made the deal with the Indiana Toll Road Concession Co. And if the funding formulas remain unchanged, it’s possible that Indiana could lease all 1,200 miles of its interstate highways to a private company and still receive nearly $900 million each year from the highway fund. Does this make sense? I don’t think so…The Senate approved a highway bill in March that contains an amendment I wrote to correct the funding formulas. Under the revised version, states would receive highway funding without including public roads that have been essentially “sold off.” That would mean states such as Ohio, which is considering privatizing its 60-year-old, 240-mile turnpike, would lose federal funding it no longer merits. House and Senate negotiators are working to finalize a highway bill, and I hope they include my amendment. Washington Post

FOX News: Public works projects are great! (When they’re in a state governed by Chris Christie)
A certain cable news channel struck a surprisingly positive tone on a major public works project in the New York metro area — the Bayonne Bridge, which authorities want to revamp to allow larger cargo ships into New York Harbor. The project has proponents in government, business, and now…..FOX News.  The new bridge just happens to span from the state where rising Republican star Gov. Chris Christie is chief executive, New Jersey, to the Staten Island district represented by Congressman Michael Grimm, a prominent GOP representative of New York City.Fox Host Martha MacCallum on Friday extolled the virtues of spending the one billion taxpayer dollars the project would cost — namely the 2,700 people it would employ “predominantly iron workers and construction workers.” Fox reporter David Lee Miller then went into a string of facts that would even make any stimulus-supporting member of the Obama Administration proud. TPM

Spending by the major charter management organizations
We find that in New York City, KIPP, Achievement First and Uncommon Schools charter schools spend substantially more ($2,000 to $4,300 per pupil) than similar district schools. Given that the average spending per pupil was around $12,000 to $14,000 citywide, a nearly $4,000 difference in spending amounts to an increase of some 30%. In Ohio, charters across the board spend less than district schools in the same city. And in Texas, some charter chains such as KIPP spend substantially more per pupil than district schools in the same city and serving similar populations, around 30 to 50% more in some cities (and at the middle school level) based on state reported current expenditures, and 50 to 100% more based on IRS filings. Even in New York where we have the highest degree of confidence in the match between our IRS data and Annual Financial Report Data, we remain unconvinced that we are accounting fully for all charter school expenditures. NEPC

IL: Chicago parking meter company wants more money, mayor balks
The private investors who run Chicago’s parking meters are doing better than expected, and now they’re demanding an additional $14 million they say they’re owed under obscure provisions of the wildly unpopular 2008 deal that privatized metered parking and caused rates to soar, records show. Disputing the claim, City Hall says Chicago Parking Meters LLC is seeking a “windfall to which it is not entitled.” The $14 million bill stems from parking revenues the meter company says it lost when the city took meters out of service last year because of street repairs, festivals and other city-sponsored activities, according to documents obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times. Chicago Sun-Times

IL: Editorial: Lesson of crummy meter deal? Go slow.
Nothing has unified Chicagoans in recent years like the collective outrage over the privatization of the city’s parking meters. It was rammed through the City Council in 2008 with little scrutiny or debate, and rates have skyrocketed and collection hours have expanded dramatically. Then, to pour salt on the wound, the city spent nearly all the $1.15 billion it was paid upfront for the meters.  And that was before we even got to the fine print. Thanks to reporting by Chicago Sun-Times reporters Chris Fusco and Dan Mihalopoulos, the parking meter deal has officially become the gift that keeps on giving…Last month, we urged Emanuel not to rush through the Chicago Infrastructure Trust, a new vehicle to seek private investors to finance public works projects. Ignoring calls for more study and fine-tuning, he barrelled ahead and the Trust passed. We lost that one, but the need for vigilance has only grown stronger. …Aldermen, ready your magnifying glasses, your best reading lamp and, most importantly, your sharpest and most tenacious lawyers. Read the fine print. Chicago Sun Times

IL: Prompt Ambulance takes over East Chicago’s EMS
…When Mayor Anthony Copeland privatized EMS duties by executive order last month, officials with Highland-based Prompt Ambulance Services promised jobs for all of the city’s paramedics and emergency medical technicians. But when the firm took over Saturday morning, only seven of the 34 full- and part-time city medics had traded in their blue Fire Department shirts for Prompt’s red polos — and three of those already were working for Prompt. “It meant a huge pay cut,” said Corinne Saikin, a five-year department veteran who was the sole EMT to accept a position with Prompt. “As of now, I’m basically making a dollar more than the minimum wage.”..Working his last shift as a Fire Department paramedic Friday night, Jonathan Roberts said he felt “dramatically let down by the city.” NWTimes

LA: Caddo Parrish looks to outsource alternative education
…The board currently is reviewing a proposal by Superintendent Gerald Dawkins to contract with Ombudsman Educational Services, a division of Educational Services of America, the nation’s leading provider of K-12 alternative and special education schools and programs. If approved, Caddo would be the first district in Louisiana to bring in the company…Currently the district spends approximately $8 million annually on its alternative schools. Ombudsman’s proposal says the company can meet Caddo’s needs for just over $3 million,  Shreveport Times

WA: Privatized liquor sales: what will happen?
…In approving Initiative 1183 in November, voters put an end to Washington State Liquor Control Board control over liquor sales that had existed since the end of Prohibition in the 1930s. Beginning in June, assuming the law survives a legal challenge now before the state Supreme Court, any store 10,000 square feet or larger in size can sell booze like any other product. The mandate is poised to drench Clark County in a sea of 69 new booze-selling applicants that include grocery, pharmacy and big-box variety stores armed to compete for sales with location, advertising and price. New York Daily News