News
IN: Indiana privatization consultant heads Ohio Turnpike study
According to his resume, KPMG employee Tim Wilschetz was paid to advise the “private consortia” bidding on the Indiana Toll Road in 2005. The following year the road was leased to foreign investors who, after doubling tolls on the road, are now on track to default on their loans to finance the deal. The project didn’t work out too well for Indiana either. Plunderbund
PA: Pennsylvania Legislators Oppose Privatizing State Lottery
One state lawmaker maintains that the process of outsourcing lottery management is shrouded in secrecy and could result in the diversion of hundreds of millions of dollars from vital state services. NACSonline
WV: Fight against toll road helps trucker get elected in West Virginia
Scott Cadle, a professional trucker and small-business owner from Leitart, WV, says his battle against a toll road in his district resonated with voters and helped get him elected to a seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates. Land Line
FL: Ruling shows how legislative shortcut misused – opinion
Rather than proposing a bill to authorize the health care privatization for the rest of the state for fear that it might meet the same fate as their effort to privatize 30 prisons, persistent and undeterred legislators tried another tactic — to have the Legislative Budget Commission authorize the change for the rest of the state for Corizon Health Caree…Circuit Court Judge John Cooper in Tallahassee said “the attempt of the Legislative Budget Commission to provide funding for this contract is void and ineffective as it violates Article III, Section 19(c)(3) of the Florida Constitution.” The state of Florida plans to appeal this ruling, further eroding adherence to rules and procedures and at an additional cost to taxpayers. So it seems no lessons have been learned. The state should immediately drop any costly plans to appeal and should make the case for this policy change directly to lawmakers through the legislative process. Hernando Today
Stephen Goldstein: Jeb a moderate? Don’t believe it
By the late 1990’s, Republicans doubled down on extremism but perverted Goldwater’s words into a message he would have disavowed: “extremism in the defense of privatization is no vice” and “moderation in the pursuit of injustice is a virtue. And one of its most ardent advocates was and is Jeb Bush. Elected Florida governor in 1998, he spent his two terms consolidating executive power and turning over government functions to crony, for-profit companies with little or no accountability. Sun-Sentinel
Hospital privatization plan deferred
Employees of the University Medical Center in Las Vegas held placards and protest signs Wednesday as Clark County commissioners pondered the future of the hospital. The issue is whether to turn UMC into a private hospital as commissioners look for a way to keep the hospital from going bankrupt. A final vote was expected Wednesday, but commissioners decided to seek other options and submit legislation to the state’s capital in Carson City to solve the financial problem. The union opposes the privatization plan. On its website, www.seiunv.org, it says that UMC, the state’s only public hospital, is the community’s only safety net. Examiner