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LA: Civil Service Commission rejects hospital privatization plans. The state Civil Service Commission on Wednesday narrowly rejected privatization plans for four LSU hospitals that would lead to the layoff of some 3,000 state employees. Some commissioners complained about the lack of information provided by LSU as they were confronted with making such a major decision…. If LSU moves forward with the contracts after a commission denial, the commission would have standing to go to court to file an injunction challenging the pacts, Templet said. The Advocate

LA: Jindal’s Moe, Larry and Curly privatizing Louisiana’s hospitals. Depending upon which source you consult, there are from four to six essential components of a contract that make the document legally binding. The LSU Board of Stuporvisors apparently is unaware of any of them. Bayoubuzz

CA: Slim lead in vote to privatize trash collection in Fresno, Calif. Privatizing the service would raise at least $14 million over several years for Fresno from the company taking on the work from the city. But the shift would cost about 120 city employees their jobs, which prompted city employees’ unions to contest the ballot measure. Reuters

FL: Fla. appeals court approves prison outsourcing. A Florida appeals court is giving the state’s prison agency the green light to privatize health care services. The 1st District Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday that a lower court judge was wrong to block plans for outsourcing in three of Florida’s four prison system regions. A Department of Corrections spokeswoman says the agency will begin to carry out the privatization effort after the new state budget takes effect on July 1. Miami Herald

FL: Alex Friedmann: For-profit prisons are not necessary. In a recent op-ed, “Prison privatization can provide real benefits,” Temple University professors Simon Hakim and Erwin Blackstone discussed their recent research that found cost savings and equal or better performance by for-profit prison companies. …Unfortunately, the professors neglected to mention that their research lauding the benefits of prison privatization was funded by members of the private prison industry, according to a press release issued by Temple University. Likewise, their study itself, which has not been published or peer-reviewed, fails to reveal that it was funded by private prison firms. Sun-Sentinel

PA: Lawmakers pan potential privatization of prison mental health services. A tentative proposal to privatize mental-health services in Pennsylvania’s prisons is drawing opposition in the Legislature. witf.org

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PA: Last hearing on privatizing State Stores highlights sticking points. With the end of Tuesday’s third and final hearing on privatizing the state-run wine and spirits stores – as well as changing the way beer is sold – Gov. Corbett and the legislature now have to figure out whether they can agree on a plan. The clock is ticking. Both sides want to seal a deal before the July 1 deadline for a new state budget. Philly.com

CA: Privatizing UC Instruction. If a controversial, and groundbreaking, bill passes the state legislature this summer, many students at UC Berkeley and other University of California campuses won’t be doing some of their basic coursework on campus anymore. As of next year, they also may be enrolled in classes that aren’t taught by UC faculty. Instead, they will be taking classes online, produced by for-profit companies — and getting full college credit for them….. But opponents of SB 520, including multiple faculty organizations, argue that it will allow for-profit educational companies to gain access to public colleges and universities that they would not otherwise have, and thereby undermine the quality of higher education in California. East Bay Express

CA: Anti-National Park Interests Misled Sonoma City Council. Supporters of the Interior Department’s decision to protect the Point Reyes National Seashore’s ecological heart, Drakes Estero, as the West Coast’s first marine wilderness area today charged that opponents of the Obama Administration’s decision presented “inaccurate and misleading” information to the Sonoma City Council to win approval of a resolution riddled with factual inaccuracies that run counter to established state and federal law. California Majority Report

CA: Fresno trash-privatization vote too close to call. The vote to privatize trash collection in Fresno, Calif., was in a near dead heat late Tuesday night. The results of voting on Measure G, which would outsource the city’s residential waste collection, were too close to call hours after the polls closed. Waste & Recycling News

IN: Opinion: See those Toll Road lane markers? My husband and I drove from Chicago to South Bend in a rainstorm the other night. It was nerve-wracking mostly because the paint on the Indiana Toll Road was very pale and frequently nonexistent. In the state where I came from, this would bring shame on public officials. But how does that work when a public good is in private hands?  South Bend Tribune

LA: Hospital ER goes as part of privatization deal. The Louisiana Legislature has agreed to close the inpatient beds and emergency room at LSU’s hospital in Lake Charles, turning it into an outpatient clinic as part of a planned privatization deal. San Francisco Chronicle

OH: Plan to Privatize Food Services at State Facilities. More than 500 people employed by the state of Ohio are holding their breaths right now, to find out if they’ll have a job come Friday. WKRC

Republicans Decide Socialism Is Awesome After Obama Proposes Privatizing TVA. In fact, the company generates hundreds of millions of dollars of tax-equivalent revenue each year! So obviously our right-wing President Barack Obama has proposed selling off the TVA to the private sector in his 2014 budget proposal, and the socialist Republicans in Congress are hell-bent on stopping him! Wonkette (satire)

 

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IL: Emanuel’s parking meter plan clears key vote. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s changes to the much-hated parking meter privatization contract are now headed for the full City Council, after easily clearing a key committee vote on Monday. The plan passed out of the Finance Committee on a 15 to 6 vote, despite some aldermen’s concerns that the changes could lead to another windfall for Chicago Parking Meters LLC, which runs the city’s 36,000 metered spaces. Under Emanuel’s proposal, the city would save about $25 million a year from lowered reimbursement costs it pays to CPM whenever a meter is taken out of service, whether for street construction or a festival. But Emanuel also inserted provisions to stop charging for Sunday parking in most neighborhoods, in exchange for making drivers feed the parking meters longer during the rest of the week. WBEZ

PA: Pa. lawmaker: Don’t privatize prison service. A number of Pennsylvania state legislators are opposing a Department of Corrections plan to outsource mental health services at 27 state prisons, saying it could put prison workers and communities at risk. Philly.com

NY: Group fights Massena hospital privatization. Efforts to privatize Massena Memorial Hospital are facing opposition. The hospital is currently owned by the town of Massena. Hospital leaders want to privatize, in large part to save money on state pension costs. North Country Public Radio

CA: Fresno gears up for privatization election. In the weeks leading up to a special election about trash privatization in Fresno, Calif., the campaign is heating up on both sides. …The special election, set to take place June 4, was one of two choices forced on City Council after a petition drive by union leaders and other opponents successfully held up the measure. The city’s other option was to kill the deal completely. Waste Recycling News

LA: Rep. Norton wants LSU Board to slow LSU hospitals takeover plan. A Louisiana state representative says hundreds of jobs could be in jeopardy in Shreveport and Monroe if a private bid to take over the management and operations of LSU hospitals goes through…..But Norton and others fear the potential loss of jobs and a negative impact on quality of patient care — especially for the neediest — should the privatization plan go through. KSLA-TV

Privatizing the public space. What worries me is unaccountable privatization of government functions. This isn’t just an issue of being a smart city: when governments outsource basic functions, such as tax and fee collection (e.g., Chicago giving up parking revenue), they are transferring money and power to unaccountable private entities. In Chicago, the city now has a very difficult time allowing free parking when that would be desirable because that is a violation of their contract–it actually has to pay fines (on top of not collecting revenue). Contrast that with Boston which, after the bombings, allowed free parking in the shutdown areas to help businesses. Smart or not, there is a distressing trend towards the privatization of governance–and if you’re not an owner, you’re a customer. The concept of rights-possessing citizen doesn’t enter into the equation. MiketheMadBiologist

Privatization Is America’s Path To Poverty & Indentured Servitude (VIDEO). CNN iReporter and political commentator Cliff Olney puts the aim of the Right and the Republican Party’s zeal for a constancy of privatizing government little by little into real world perspective. He decided to bring to the forefront a story that goes under the radar but that is happening throughout the country. Daily Koz

New Study Proposes Hybrid Public-Private Postal Service. A new study by a nonpartisan Washington think tank recommends a radical new solution to the problems faced by the United States Postal Service in the form of a public-private partnership. In the report released Monday, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation argues that all but “final mile” mail delivery should be opened up to private competition and the size of the postal service should be drastically reduced to meet the realities of the digital age…. Atkinson acknowledges the plan would mean that 40 percent of the more than 500,000 postal workforce would lose their jobs and possibly half of the more than 30,000 post offices would close.  Newsmax.com

 

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Raising Ugly Questions About Privatization. I finally read Rachel Maddow’s really interesting book called Drift, and in it she analyzes how easy it has become for America to go to war. And one of the primary elements of this — and this overlaps with my own thinking — is that by allowing corporations to perform what used to be considered public services, government leaders can enter conflicts without the encountering public resistance like the ones that marked conflicts in the last part of the twentieth century. Many government and even military jobs are now outsourced to private companies, and Maddow concludes that the need to sell the public on a war is diminished because many of the functions and services formerly performed by the U.S. military are subcontracted to corporations. Huffington Post

OH: Speed Cameras Tear Apart Ohio Town. The controversy began in September 2012 when the village allowed Optotraffic to begin issuing $105 tickets using a portable speed camera with a 40 percent cut of the revenue going to the private company. Tickets were being issued at a rate that would have generated $2 million per year, or over $1000 per resident. “Businesses have lost customers who now refuse to drive through Elmwood,” Judge Robert P. Ruehlman explained in a March ruling. “Churches have lost members who are frightened to come to Elmwood and individuals who have received notices were harmed because they were unable to defend themselves against the charges brought against them.”  theNewspaper.com

IL: Parking meter contract left no clever ways out, alas. What if, to turn the screws on the private parking meter company that has Chicago in a vise of its own, the city imposed an exorbitant, crippling tax on parking meter revenues? It was an idea submitted by one of my readers, and I put it to the city’s top lawyer, Corporation Counsel Steve Patton, and the city’s chief financial officer, Lois Scott, when they visited the Tribune on Thursday afternoon. Chicago Tribune

WI: UW parking ramps and dorms, but not sports palaces, could end up for sale. That proposal, supported by Gov. Scott Walker and advanced by the Legislature’s budget-writing Joint Finance Committee last week, would give the governor broad authority to sell state-owned properties, including facilities operated by the UW System. It would cut the UW System’s Board of Regents out of the process but would require a cost-benefit analysis and legislative approval for any sale…. In addition to potentially losing control over many of its buildings, UW campuses also could lose hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue if the state sold or leased parking ramps and other self-supporting facilities. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Noam Chomsky on Democracy and Education in the 21st Century and Beyond Falcone: Do we as a nation have a reason to fear an assault on public education and the complete privatization of education?  Chomsky: It’s part of the way of controlling and dumbing down the population, and that’s important. Much has to do with the catastrophe that’s looming, mainly environmental catastrophe. It’s very serious. It’s not generations from now; it’s your children and your grandchildren. And the public is pretty close to the scientific consensus. If you look at polls, it will say it’s a serious problem; we’ve got to do something about it. Government doesn’t want to, and the corporate sector not only doesn’t want to, it’s strongly opposed to it. So now, take for example ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. It’s corporate funded, the Koch brothers and those guys. It’s an organization which designs legislation for states, for state legislators. And they’ve got plenty of clout, so they can get a lot of it through. Now they have a new program, which sounds very pretty on the surface. It’s designed to increase “critical thinking.” And the way you increase critical thinking is by having “balanced education.” “Balanced education” means that if you teach kids something about the climate, you also have to teach them climate change denial. It’s like teaching evolution science, but also creation science, so that you have “critical thinking.” All of this is a way of turning the population into a bunch of imbeciles. That’s really serious. I mean, it’s life and death at this point, not just making society worse.  Truthout

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Britain’s Largest Privatization in Over a Decade Underway. Britain is continuing plans to privatize its state-owned mail service, the largest such effort since the privatization of its railways in the 1990s. “Once again consumers will lose out when prices rise and deliveries are reduced but banks make millions,” said Mario Dunn of the CWU. On Wednesday the government announced that banking giants Goldman Sachs and UBS would be leading the efforts.  Common Dreams

FL: How Tea Party Favorite Rick Scott Helped Cook Up a Sweetheart Deal for His Florida Friends. Tea Party favorite Governor Scott got into the mix and made the 1.2 million state-sponsored insurance policies the focus of a privatization campaign—a mission involving statements that were about as accurate as his old company’s Medicare filings. Vanity Fair

TX:  Is the 85 mph SH 130 toll road a failure? SH 130 was touted as a way to ease traffic on the horribly congested IH 35 between San Antonio and Austin…. But seven months later after its grand opening, the private company that built the road has been downgraded by Moody’s. The problem is traffic.  Not enough of it. …. SH 130 Concession Company released this statement: The company procures a rating from Moody’s on an annual basis in accordance with the requirements of our financing. We are meeting our contractual obligations to operate and maintain a world-class highway. And hopefully they will. If they do not, who will be left holding the bag? Beaumont Enterprise

WI: UW education dean warns school boards that ALEC seeks to wipe them out. “The ALEC goal to eliminate school districts and school boards is a bit shocking — but the idea is to make every school, public and private, independent through vouchers for all students. By providing all funding to parents rather than school districts, there is no need for local coordination, control or oversight,” she writes in the magazine of the Wisconsin Association of School Boards. 77Square.com

PA: Black Clergy of Philadelphia opposes Pa. liquor privatization plan. Group president, the Rev. Terrence Griffith, said Thursday the measure would make it easier to obtain alcohol. That, he said, would cause a spike in underage drinking and drunken driving. “We do not want to see liquor sold on every corner in the city of Philadelphia,” Griffith said in a phone interview. “We don’t want to see more deaths in our community. We don’t want to see more alcoholics in our community.” Newsworks

NY: Suffolk aims to privatize 2 health clinics. Opponents of the plan say a private operator will cut services that they are not mandated to provide. They also have criticized Bellone for using a waiver to avoid the open bidding process and deal exclusively with Hudson River. The firm is also in negotiations to take over another two of the county’s 10 health clinics. Newsday

 

 

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TX: Moody’s downgrades toll road company. Moody’s Investor Service has downgraded the credit rating of the private company that built and operates the Texas 130 toll road extension, a rating that could continue to drop unless traffic “aggressively” grows on the road in the next two years. San Antonio Express

MI: Detroit’s Davos. According to a recent Reuters article, since corporate bankruptcies have declined, investors specializing in “distressed” hedge funds have begun circling troubled municipalities, with no city “attracting more attention than Detroit.” One financial adviser quoted in the story sounded a note of caution to the would-be vultures, noting that unlike a corporation, “you can’t liquidate a city.” But apparently no one informed Mr. Orr, whose spokesman, Bill Nowling, told The Detroit Free Press that the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts, including works by van Gogh and Matisse, was being listed as an asset in the event of bankruptcy. “Creditors can really force the issue,” Mr. Nowling said. “If you go into court, they can object and say, ‘Hey, I’m taking a huge haircut, and you’ve got a billion dollars’ worth of art sitting over there.’ ” New York Times

TN: Ex-lobbyist: Public education endangered. From school vouchers to charter schools, a former Tennessee Education Association lobbyist painted a verbal portrait of an endangered public education system at a recent “Lunch with the League” meeting. Oak Ridger

PA: Pa. may outsource all mental health services for inmates. About 10,000 inmates in Pennsylvania state prisons require mental health services — and those services may be completely privatized this summer.  Newsworks.org

NOAA Climate Research Funding Could Be Gutted Under New Bill. A bill being drafted in the House could potentially undermine the climate science research activities and the oceans programs of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It also would open up the weather satellite sector, which has been a troubled area for NOAA in recent years, to more privatization. Huffington Post

 

 

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GA: Privatizing parks may mean charging for more services. Five Georgia state parks, including two in north Georgia, will be soon be completely managed by private, for-profit firms. The Florida-based Coral Hospitality will manage the properties. The state will still own the parks, which are now run by the Department of Natural Resources….. State officials say the move is a financial necessity. The plan may involve charging for services that are now free. Access North Georgia

CO: Boulder City Council urges caution in privatizing parks services. Boulder should be careful about privatizing parks and recreation services and not forget community expectations for additional athletic fields and other parks facilities, City Council members said Tuesday. The Daily Camera

IL: Privatizing Education in Chicago. The Chicago Board of Education voted last week to close 50 of the city’s public schools as part of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to save more than $500 million, or half the district’s deficit.…. Diane Ravitch, assistant secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush, a historian of education and best-selling author of more than 20 books, says the move shows that people “have come to accept the idea that closing schools is a reform strategy.” …“This is not about saving money,” Ravitch told “Democracy Now!” on Tuesday. “It’s not about giving kids a better education, because there’s solid research that shows that most of the kids who moved in from a closed school to another school, there was no change at all for them. This is really about a privatization movement that’s underway across the country, and I think that Rahm Emanuel wanted to be the biggest, the baddest and the boldest by closing the most schools.”   Truthdig

LA: LSU privatization deals approved for 4 hospitals. The LSU Board of Supervisors has approved contracts to privatize four more of its public hospitals, in agreements  still missing key financing details.  The Republic

NY: New York City Public Libraries Attack Alert. By generating budget shortfalls for state and local governments, the financial crisis has given people like mayor Bloomberg the opportunity to make cuts to popular social services like libraries. Why is FIRE interested in budget cuts? Because they reduce money needed for maintenance and thus make the library system appear too large for the city to handle (they also reduce public services, thus making them less popular). The Brooklyn Public Library, for example, has “a $230 million backlog of deferred maintenance, barely dented by the $15 million annual allotment of capital funding.” NakedCapitalism

TX: Fort Worth Floats Idea of Privatizing Water Services. In March, the city of Fort Worth appointed a task force to see whether the city might save money by putting some of its water services in public-private partnerships. City officials say nothing has been decided, but experts are already weighing in on the issues that cities could face if they privatize some of their water services and the kinds of opposition that could emerge from residents. Texas Tribune

TX: Threats to Privatize Neighborhood Schools Continue. The private interests pushing to take over neighborhood are still hard at work at the capitol trying to attach pieces of their agenda to other bills that are still alive in the legislative process. One example is SB 1718, the so-called “achievement district” bill authorizing state takeover of neighborhood schools rated low-performing and handover of those schools to private charter operators. One attempt already has been made—and thwarted—to add that bill to another, unrelated piece of legislation since it was killed as a stand-alone bill in the House Tuesday night. More such attempts can be expected to revive defeated measures on the privatizers’ agenda. Texas AFT

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LA: Privatization review bill shelved by Louisiana Senate committee. A bill requiring a more thorough review of privatization plans was shot down by a Louisiana Senate committee Monday. The measure, opposed by Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration, had already received unanimous approval of the state House. NOLA.com

LA: Louisiana government is making itself off limits to the public: Opinion. Gov. Bobby Jindal’s aides recently fought and defeated efforts to repeal a broad public records exception — passed at Jindal’s behest in 2009 — that keeps hidden documents related to the governor’s “deliberative process.” Various state departments improperly invoke that deliberative process exception to shield records. Jindal has even extended the exception to LSU, a dubious practice that allowed university officials to withhold records about state hospital budget cuts and the university’s privatization plans for those hospitals. NOLA.com

IL: Aldermen steam over Emanuel’s parking-meter deal. Lots of questions are raised as the City Council opens debate on Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s proposed revisions to the city’s parking meter lease. But mayoral aides say they’ve done the best they can. A mini standoff continued at City Hall Friday, as a group of aldermen raised new questions about a plan that Mayor Rahm Emanuel says would improve the city’s controversial parking meter lease deal. Mayoral aides asserted the deal is as good as Chicagoans are going to get. ChicagoBusiness.com

MI: DIA’s art collection could face sell-off to satisfy Detroit’s creditors. The once unthinkable is suddenly thinkable. Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr is considering whether the multibillion-dollar collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts should be considered city assets that potentially could be sold to cover about $15 billion in debt…. Liquidating DIA art to pay down debt likely would be a monstrously complicated, controversial and contentious process never before tested on such a large scale and with no certain outcome. The DIA is unusual among major civic museums in that the city retains ownership of the building and collection while daily operations, including fund-raising, are overseen by a nonprofit institution. Detroit Free Press

PA: Pa. lawmaker: Don’t privatize prison service. A number of Pennsylvania state legislators are opposing a Department of Corrections plan to outsource mental health services at 27 state prisons, saying it could put prison workers and communities at risk. The state could contract out as many as 187 positions now filled by Department of Corrections employees to save money and improve services, according to corrections spokeswoman Susan McNaughton. The positions include licensed psychologist managers, licensed psychologists, and psychological services specialists. Philly.com

NY: Reducing Some City Parks to the Status of Beggars. Those who defend privatization are candid. Ask about inequity and they talk of commodities; the emerald brilliance of Central Park draws tourists. The High Line is a brooch in the luxury transformation of Chelsea. As for Flushing Meadows? When told that partisans hoped to transform a homely asphalt-ringed fountain into a grass-edged lake, John Alschuler Jr., co-chairman of the Friends of the High Line, offered an exasperated sigh. In his day job, he lobbies to place a U.F.O.-size professional soccer stadium in the midst of that Queens park. Cities, he said, no longer pay for parks properly. Such exuberant hopes will not be realized in my life, he said, or that of my child. Find a corporate sponsor, he suggested. So condescension passes as realism. New York Times

NY: Lawsuit Accuses the City and Lincoln Center of Privatizing a Public Park. A handful of New York residents and environmental activist groups are suing the City of New York, the Parks Department, and Lincoln Center over the use of Damrosch Park, a 2.44-acre park on the Upper West Side. The lawsuit claims that the city has effectively, but illegally, handed over management of the park to Lincoln Center, and that the events the performing arts center holds there — including the iconic Fashion Week — have taken over the space and rendered it unusable for the public. HyperAllergic.com

NY: Governor proposes privatization of LI’s utilities. Following months of deliberation regarding the future of the Long Island Power Authority, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has proposed legislation that would privatize Long Island’s utility operations. liherald.com

CA: Malibu beaches? There’s an app for that. Environmental writer Jenny Price has spent years helping the public find its way to beaches disguised as private property. She has partnered with Escape Apps to create the Our Malibu Beaches smartphone app, designed to steer beachgoers to entryways that often hide behind trees, padlocks and fake “Closed for repairs” or “No parking” signs.,,, “You have these miles of beachfront in Malibu. It’s one of the most egregious examples of privatization of public space in Los Angeles.”

Los Angeles Times

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54 nations, including the US, agree to expand private development of toll roads. Ministers from 54 nations on Thursday opened the door to worldwide expanded private development of toll roads, rail lines and other projects… But the declaration of support for so-called public-private partnerships also raises many questions about whether corporations will yield too much control over public roads – or whether public entities could be exposed to financial risks in these agreements.  Fort Worth Star-Telegram

IL: Report: Daley’s Staff Sensed Parking-Meter Woes. Former Mayor Richard M. Daley’s staff was aware of major problems with the city’s parking-meter privatization deal in 2010 — a year and a half before the costly issues publicly surfaced, according to hundreds of pages of documents released Wednesday by Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration….. As early as May 2010, in the second year of the 75-year meter-privatization contract, Daley aides questioned Chicago Parking Meters’ disability-parking reimbursement claims, the newly released records show. Over the next three years, the company demanded nearly $56 million for the free disability parking — an amount fueled in part by able-bodied drivers using relatives’ placards, or fake or stolen ones, to avoid paying escalating meter costs. Chicago Defender

IL: Diane Ravich: Chicago School Closings: The Largest in US History. Never in U.S. history has a local school board–or any other board, appointed or elected–chosen to close 49 public schools. Never. That’s what the Chicago Public Schools did yesterday…..He is wantonly destroying public education. He is punishing the teachers’ union for daring to strike last fall. He will open more charter schools, staffed by non-union teachers, to pick up the kids who lost their neighborhood schools. Some of them will be named for the equity investors who fund his campaigns. Diane Ravitch’s blog

IL: Brown: Are Chicago Housing Authority changes common sense or attack on poor?….They argue CHA could best serve the need for public housing by preserving the developments that have so far been spared the wrecking ball… “The model of demolition of public housing, followed by privatization is not a model that has worked,” said Leah Levinger, executive director of the Chicago Housing Initiative. Levinger is also among those raising a red flag about hints of major policy changes in the Plan Forward, most prominently the possibility of “term limits” for public housing residents. Chicago Sun-Times

NY: Court rejects union’s effort to block sale of Onondaga County’s Nursing Home. The legal challenge was filed earlier this year by the CSEA, which represents more than 400 workers at the nursing home on Onondaga Hill….The union had also argued the Legislature exceeded its authority by abolishing the Van Duyn workforce in the county budget…. “We still believe privatizing the nursing home is very detrimental,” he said.  Syracuse.com

NY: Ulster County Executive Michael Hein calls for privatizing adult mental health. Ulster County Executive Michael Hein on Thursday unveiled a plan to outsource mental health services for adults to the same not-for-profit agency that has provided adult mental health services to Dutchess County residents since 1996. Kingston Daily Freeman

LA:  Opinion: Hospital privatization costing state…[T]he financial costs to Louisiana to implement privatization are mounting daily it seems, and many millions of this debt will be annually recurring costs. Take, for example, the additional $13 million that the state will incur to pay off the recent bond sale to fund LSU health care facility construction projects. And the additional $42 million to privatize the six southern Louisiana LSU-managed hospitals according to a review by the Legislative Auditors office. Shreveport Times

WI: Opinion: Expansion of school vouchers will dismantle public education. According to Murphy’s Law, if you tinker around with something long enough, it will eventually break. That describes the governor’s and certain legislators’ proposal to expand school vouchers in Wisconsin. If passed, it will become another major setback for public education. What a 1-2 knockout punch — cuts to funding for education followed by the expansion of school vouchers — it could be. Wisconsin State Journal

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 PA: DOC taking bids, considers privatizing department of prison system. Could a section of state correctional institutions become private? That’s the debate among the Department of Corrections right now. …The Department of Corrections might privatize mental health services throughout its prison systems. A $91 million contract with MHM Correction Services is set to expire at the end of August. The company has been providing mental health services statewide since 2009. The employees under the contract are DOC employees and include psychologist managers, psychological services specialists and associates. Statewide, it employs about 190 people.  WJAC Johnstown

PA: New special interest comes to PA liquor privatization party. A new special interest is asking for a seat at the table after the state legislature’s actions threaten the finances of its members. The Liquor Store Real Estate Owners Association is the latest opponent to liquor privatization. The group is comprised of property owners who have lease agreements with the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. Philly.com

PA: Will lawmakers trade booze for new highway money? As we noted on Sunday, the chances for a booze privatization deal before the June 30 deadline are looking increasingly remote, what with all the opposition in the Republican-controlled state Senate. PennLive.com

ME: Maine toll highway study law repeal voted. The Maine Senate has given final approval to a bill that repeals a requirement for a feasibility study on the proposed east-west highway…The resolve removes a requirement that the state Transportation Department conduct a feasibility study on the $2 billion project. The proposal calls for a 220-mile, privately run toll road connecting New Brunswick and Quebec via Maine. The Legislature last session appropriated $300,000 for the study, but the study was suspended due to insufficient information about the project. WGME

IN: Pence Wants Public-Private Partnerships To Fund Rest Of I-69. The governor says finding public-private partnerships for the road’s final stages from Martinsville to Indianapolis ranks ahead of almost all other road projects when it comes to allocating an additional $200 million a year given to the Indiana Department of Transportation in the recently-passed state budget…. But when a reporter suggested the governor didn’t directly answer a question about whether the road would be paid for in part by tolls, Pence was cagey. Indiana Public Media

CA: Environmentalists sue over OC toll road extension. Environmentalists filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to block the extension of a toll road in southern Orange County, five years after widespread public opposition stopped a similar project. San Jose Mercury News