News

OH: Ohio Turnpike hires firm owned by Yankees, Dallas Cowboys to market naming rights. The Ohio Turnpike has hired a prominent sports marketing firm to help it raise money in a way that would be a first for a U.S. toll road: by selling naming rights to its service plazas, bridges and perhaps even the 241-mile highway. A team from Legends Sales & Marketing, owned by the New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys, will spend three or four months sizing up the turnpike and designing a plan to sell long-term naming rights on its facilities. It could begin marketing them by spring. Plain Dealer

LA: Insight: Hospital Privatization Fodder for Legislative Session and Governor’s Race. A recent report by the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana concludes that with the privatization of the charity hospital system, Louisiana’s safety net is being reinvented. WWNO

MI: Lansing passes on privatizing bus fleet. At a meeting packed with bus drivers and their supporters, the Lansing school board Thursday passed on its chance to privatize transportation for the 2014-15 school year. About a dozen people spoke against privatization during public comments. Lansing State Journal

FL: Auditors say 5 charter schools in the red. Five charter schools in Broward County ended last school year in “deteriorating financial condition,” spending more money than they took in, district auditors said Thursday. Sun-Sentinel

NJ: Toll takers continue to fight for jobs. Toll collectors on the Garden State Parkway and New Jersey Turnpike are raising money and reaching out to political leaders as they continue their campaign against plans to privatize their jobs….Union leaders fear privatization will lead to more job losses and wage cuts in an already shrinking workforce. Local 194 lost 150 jobs and accepted $22 million in concessions in 2011 as part of an agreement with the parkway and turnpike’s operating authority to forestall privatization at that time, McCarthy said.  Press of Atlantic City