News

Shocker: Republicans Fight Obama Plan to Privatize the Hugely Popular, Cheap Energy Source of the TVA. Obama’s scheme to sell off the Tennessee Valley Authority gets push-back from Tennessee Republicans who know the benefits of a publicly-owned facility. AlterNet

FL: New State Budget Shrinks Government Workforce. The size of state government continues to shrink under Gov. Rick Scott. The state budget that goes into effect in July eliminates thousands of government jobs….. “My understanding is we have the lowest number of state workers per capita in the country”, Scott said. “I’m proud of that.” The cuts will be felt throughout the state. Most of them are in the Department of Corrections, where positions in health services are being turned over to private vendors.   WGCU News

FL: Broward School Board votes to privatize school construction work. Without knowing what the final price tag will be – but with the hope of restoring credibility to school construction projects – Broward School Board members on Tuesday approved privatizing most of the district’s long-troubled facilities department. Miami Herald

MA: State House News — State privatization law faces changes in budget talks. Lawmakers are once again contemplating loosening the strictures of a law that governs whether state services can be privatized, which one of the law’s chief backers said would return the state to the hands-off governin style responsible for Big Dig construction problems. Wicked Local

NJ: N.J. rejects union protest of lottery privatization, allowing contract to advance. New Jersey rejected a formal protest filed against its decision to privatize part of the state lottery, officials said Tuesday. NorthJersey.com

NC: Big $$$ Behind NC Privatization Bills. Same old story in North Carolina as elsewhere: big money from reactionary millionaires funding the theft of public education. American Federation for Children is based in Michigan. It supports vouchers. DianeRavich.net

CA: Measure G Signs Stolen; For And Against Cry Foul. Measure G, which seeks Fresno voter’s approval to privatize the city’s residential trash pickup, is causing people on both sides of the measure to cry foul, both sides are claiming signs are being stolen out of people’s yards. KMPH Fox 26

LA: LSU Hospital Privatization Plan Running Out of Funds. The privatization plan surrounding Baton Rouge-based Louisiana State University Health Care Services Division and LSU Health – Shreveport is entering choppy water, as outsourcing contracts for three of the hospitals will use up 94 percent of the plan’s dollars. Becker’s Hospital Review

 

 

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PA: Pennsylvania township scammed in streetlight deal. The consulting company Municipal Energy Managers, of Lackawanna County, Penn., took $165,488 in payment from the city of Richland, Penn., but never rendered the services promised, according to local police. In February 2009, Richland officials paid the sum up front to Municipal Energy Managers. The company was to facilitate the transfer of ownership of 160 streetlights from PPL, an electric and utility holding company, to the township. Municipal Energy would then be tasked with maintaining the lights as well as install energy-saving equipment on them according to local newspaper, The Intelligencer. However, no progress was ever made. Municipal Energy’s owners, Patrick Joseph McLaine, 66, and Robert J. Kearns, 49, never contacted PPL to begin the transfer. “They took $160,000 and essentially did nothing,” Richland police sergeant Mike Kisthardt told The Intelligencer. American City and County

PA: PA Senate Democrat frowns on linking transportation with liquor privatization. Attempts to link the needed repair of Pennsylvania roads and bridges to Gov. Tom Corbett’s privatization of the state’s liquor system is a distortion of important legislative priorities, state Sen. Minority Leader Jay Costa said Monday. Speaking at a Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon at the Harrisburg Hilton, Costa, D-Allegheny, said House Republicans want to bind the fate of needed transportation funding – popular in the senate – to the liquor privatization effort the House backed earlier this year.  PennLive.com

PA: Lottery privatization pursuit continues. Despite a trajectory that shows Pennsylvania Lottery profits on course to break the past year’s record-breaking performance, Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration has not abandoned its effort to privatize the lottery’s management. Patriot-News

NJ: Bill creating new standards for privatization contracts passes NJ Assembly. A bill imposing new requirements on privatization contracts is heading to Governor Christie’s desk after passing its final legislative hurdle today. The bill would outlaw new contracts that rely on increasing fees or cutting services to save money. It would require the state to demonstrate any savings came from increased efficiency or other improvements that would not diminish services. NorthJersey.com

MA: Audit: Mass. nonprofit overcharged state. A nonprofit organization that contracts with Massachusetts to provide services to residents with autism and other developmental disabilities should repay nearly $350,000 in state funds that it used improperly to pay staff, Auditor Suzanne Bump said Monday. The amount included more than $138,000 to the May Institute’s president and chief executive officer, and nearly $211,000 for wages to 10 management staff during the 2010 and 2011 fiscal years, according to the audit. Boston.com

CA: California May Create a Two-Tiered Community College System. Jonathan Lightman, executive director of the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges, contends the fees are equivalent to privatizing public education. “It’s an unequivocal threat to the idea of fairness and academic democracy that the community college system has held since its inception.” Opponents say the bill establishes a fast-track system that gives an extra advantage to those with money. It makes “access to core classes dependent on students’ capacity to pay.” Yahoo! News

WI: Legislators To Decide Reach Of School Voucher Programs  – Audio. Legislators may soon decide the fate of Governor Scott Walker’s controversial plan to expand taxpayer-funded school vouchers. The expansion has been a divisive issue, especially in the communities that would be directly impacted…. But Steve McNeal, superintendent of the Beloit Public School District, has a much different take on the proposed expansion. “The only thing that the voucher program has done is lined the pockets of many people that are into the privatization of education. It’s increased taxes in local municipalities. It has really kind of been a deterioration of public funds towards public schools.” Wisconsin Public Radio News

The Next Stop in Public Transportation. Riders of public transportation are used to ads by now. Indeed, if you’re a regular bus or subway user, chances are pretty good you’ll see an advertisement at your stop, on the exterior of your vehicle and once again on its interior — all before even grabbing a seat. Sometimes, it may seem like the only way to escape it all is by closing your eyes. But in some places, that might not even be enough anymore because the latest trend in transit advertising is audio commercials. Transit Advertising

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FL: Florida Adopts Legislation on Public Private Partnerships…. [T]he Legislature has, this session, passed Bill CS/CS/HB 85 expanding the Florida P3 statute to allow the finance/build/operate model to be used in a broad range of projects outside of transportation.  The National Law Review

NC: Legislator opposes I-77 tolls.  “When you’re driving down a road that you already paid for, you shouldn’t be taxed again with a toll,” State Rep. Larry Pittman, R-Cabarrus, told members of Widen I-77, a Lake Norman-area citizens group fighting the state’s $550 million toll road plan. Charlotte Observer

NY: Opinion: Privatization broke mental health care in Dutchess County. The privatization of mental health-care services as well as the marked reduction of support services available to those with serious psychiatric disturbances have led to a mental health system that is broken and often unsafe. For example, high-risk individuals (such as those who have made a recent suicide attempt or who have been grossly unable to function in the community) flow from hospitals and partial hospitalization programs to privatized clinics, where they are seen every two to three weeks (sometimes every four weeks) for half-hour sessions. At these clinics, staff leave frequently because the pay is low and the caseloads are staggering, and patients have to either begin again and again with new therapists or are lost in the “system” at these times — not receiving care until the next crisis. Poughkeepsie Journal

NY: Cuomo’s Energy Czar Defends Near-Privatization of LIPA Over Alternatives. The Cuomo administration’s top energy official defended a plan that would all but privatize the Long Island Power Authority, arguing that a competing proposal to restructure it as a fully municipalized public utility would be unwieldy and could perpetuate political meddling. City & State

LA: Analyst says funding gap for LSU hospital deals. The first three LSU hospital privatization deals appear to use up 94 percent of the funding Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration set aside for eight such arrangements, budget analysts told senators Friday. The assessment of the Legislative Fiscal Office, a nonpartisan office that evaluates budget proposals for lawmakers, worried several members of the Senate Finance Committee who are combing through the $25 billion budget proposed for the 2013-14 fiscal year that begins July 1. “I’m extremely uncomfortable,” said Sen. Sherri Smith Buffington, R-Keithville, after hearing the financial analysis. Jindal is seeking to privatize the operations of most LSU-run safety net hospitals that care for the poor and uninsured and that train many of Louisiana’s medical students. Seattle Post Intelligencer

PA: So what’s up with liquor privatization? Dead? Mostly dead? Yet with less than six weeks to go before the June 30 deadline to pass a new budget, getting booze privatization over the goal line remains a frustratingly elusive goal for the Corbettistas and some are saying that it chances might be dead for the spring. PennLive.com

KS: Privatization proposal is sketchy. Should Kansas privatize services for the intellectually and developmentally disabled (ID/DD) population? The issue brought a lot of heat this past week….Deborah Auger of the University of Delaware surveyed the results of these privatization policies. Her bottom line: In order to work, the contracting process must be aggressively overseen by well-trained government employees with real authority. If done well, such policies may mean consumer choice, more opportunities to stay at home and cost savings. If done poorly, they can be a disaster. Auger documents a long train of abuses: payments to providers that provided no care in Massachusetts, a private juvenile care facility in Colorado closed for gross mismanagement, a mental health system with no qualified oversight in Arizona, and $4 million stolen by employees of a New York group home for the mentally ill.  HutchNews.com

Ed Tech, Privatization And Plunder. It would be easier for me to maintain my optimism if not for some ugly facts, like the recent cynical moves from the Florida legislature. “In 2011, the Legislature made it a requirement for all high school students to complete at least one course online, creating a guaranteed market for online learning services,” explains the Miami Herald, and now the other shoe is dropping as the state cuts back per-pupil funding for the publicly operated Florida Virtual School while creating opportunities for private businesses.  InformationWeek

 

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PA: Pennsylvania Senate Narrows Privatization Focus. Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett’s push for total privatization of the state’s wine and spirits retail monopoly appears to be on ice, with state senators suggesting they could support some loosening of alcohol retail restrictions but not a mandatory sell-off of the state’s retail and wholesale infrastructure. Shanken News Daily

TX: Texas House kills local review of public-private projects. The Texas House has killed a provision, at the urging of Gov. Rick Perry, that would have required public-private development projects on state land to go through local zoning. Austin American-Statesman

TX: New tricks? ‘Availability payments,’ a public private partnership in sheep’s clothing. The argument by proponents is that payments to the private entity are only made if money is appropriated or ‘available,’ and that it does not constitute a debt to the state. However, this ‘tool’ puts ALL Texas taxpayers on the hook for repayment of the project. Whether it’s a toll project and revenues are inadequate to repay the obligation or debt to the private company, or a non-toll project, taxpayers are obligated to re-pay the private entity, presumably with interest. Just because the debt is off the balance sheet, doesn’t mean taxpayers are not obligated to pay it. MySanAntonio.com

VA: Court decision clouds future of Virginia toll roads. One circuit court judge’s opinion that tolling in the Hampton Roads area is unconstitutional may place future public-private partnerships in Virginia in peril. Watchdog,org

LA: Bill halting Louisiana public hospital privatization tabled. A resolution immediately ceasing the state’s move toward privatizing its public hospitals was voluntarily deferred in a House committee Tuesday. NOLA.com

NY: Cuomo’s Energy Czar Defends Near-Privatization of LIPA Over Alternatives. The Cuomo administration’s top energy official defended a plan that would all but privatize the Long Island Power Authority, arguing that a competing proposal to restructure it as a fully municipalized public utility would be unwieldy and could perpetuate political meddling. City & State

NJ: Privatization Cost Analysis & Call Center Bills Released From Assembly Committee. The bill requires cost analysis for the privatization of contracts, among other pro-worker provisions.  The New Jersey State AFL-CIO testified in support of the bill which passed mostly on party lines….A-3775 (Wagner / Eustace), which concerns call center outsourcing was also released from the Assembly Labor Committee and supported by the New Jersey State AFL-CIO.  NJ AFL

MD: Another City Forced To Refund Illegal Photo Tickets. Hagerstown, Maryland announced Wednesday that it would refund 808 illegally issued speed camera tickets. Brekford Corporation mailed the citations between the end of December and January using three automated ticketing machines that failed to meet the certification requirements of state law.  TheNewspaper.com

 

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PA: Liquor privatization advocate worried over slow motion senate. A key figure in the effort to privatize the state liquor stores said Wednesday he is less bullish that a privatization plan will be enacted before the legislature takes it’s summer break. Patriot-News

PA: Pennsylvania senators hear debate on liquor privatization. For supporters of privatizing the Pennsylvania liquor system, the virtues of leaving alcohol sales to business are a rallying cry. But for the taverns and beer distributors, groceries and wineries already in the market, the movement to overhaul regulations that have shaped their business models are cause for industry-specific opportunity and concern. Pittsburgh Post Gazette

LA: La. Hospital Privitization Costs Still Foggy After Auditor’s Report. Lawmakers that have fought the Administration for more power in the process of privatizing the state’s charity hospitals may get their wish as they consider funding for the cost of laying off hospital workers.  WWNO

NJ: NJ TO STUDY PRIVATIZING MOTOR VEHICLE INSPECTIONS. After running out this weekend, the contract for Parsons Corporation to operate the state-run vehicle inspection stations in New Jersey has been extended for three years.  Officials are studying whether to privatize the inspection system. New Jersey drivers now have the choice of paying a private garage to do an emissions inspection or having it done without charge at a state facility. The $20 per vehicle cost for Parsons to do the job is funded by the motor vehicle fees that drivers pay. WBGO News

NY: LIPA privatization moves closer. New Jersey’s Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., would effectively take control of the Long Island Power Authority under legislation proposed Monday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Crain’s New York Business

MI: Running prisons for profit so wrong, it’s almost criminal. Privatization might sound, in theory, like the way to bring Michigan’s prison costs under control. But because the desired outcomes in the corrections system are about more than bottom-line dollar analyses, privatization is just not likely to deliver. Detroit Free Press

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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LA: Audit: $42M in layoff costs for LSU privatization. Gov. Bobby Jindal’s push to privatize all but one of the LSU-run hospitals across south Louisiana will cost the state an estimated $42 million to make the layoffs, according to an audit released Monday. The review by Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera’s office said privatization of six hospitals in the LSU Health Care Services Division would require an estimated $29 million for termination pay and another $13 million for unemployment payments. San Francisco Chronicle

LA: Louisiana privatization efforts would get legislative oversight under bill. Louisiana lawmakers would be given the power to reject efforts to privatize work now done by state government employees under a bill advancing in the House of Representatives. The measure, House Bill 240, would require the governor to submit efforts to contract out-of-state work to legislative committees and the Legislative Auditors Office for approval. NOLA.com

FL: Bill opens up funding for private virtual schools. Private online learning companies will get a better shot at Florida public school funding under a bill that won approval on the final day of the legislative session. Though the vote garnered little attention from outside observers, Republicans hailed it as among the year’s most important victories for school choice…..But Democrats were outraged that the final action took place on the last day of the session — and only hours after lawmakers reduced the funding for Florida’s public virtual school. Taken together, critics said, the moves were a clear effort to privatize public education. Tampabay.com

NY: Legislators Tentatively Back Cuomo’s Plan To Do Away With LIPA. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo received tentative support from legislative leaders Monday for his plan to finally sideline the Long Island Power Authority, which has been criticized for high rates and questionable response in disasters — most infamously including Superstorm Sandy. The Cuomo proposal would replace LIPA’s role in daily operations by Public Service Electric & Gas Co. of New Jersey. The proposal would freeze Long Islanders’ rates for three years. CBS Local

NJ: Bill regulating privatization contracts passes N.J. Assembly committee. Amid concerns over Governor Christie’s plan to privatize part of the state lottery, a bill imposing new requirements on privatization contracts passed the state Senate on Monday. The bill would outlaw new contracts that rely on increasing fees or cutting services to save money. It would require the state to demonstrate any savings came from increased efficiency or other improvements that would not diminish services. NorthJersey.com

MI: The potential costs of privatizing Michigan’s prison system – audio. During the lame-duck session last December, Michigan lawmakers passed legislation that would pave the way for more privatization of prison services and even entire prisons. But state efforts to save money through privatization of prisons are fraught with examples across the country of dubious budget savings, dangerously inadequate services, and moral conundrums.  Natalie Holbrook, program director of the Michigan criminal justice program for the American Friends Service Committee, and Bob Libal, executive director of Grassroots Leadership, outline some of the problems with prison privatization. WKAR

 

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How School Privatizers Buy State-Level Elections. A fundamental struggle for democracy is going on behind the scenes in statehouses around the country, as a handful of wealthy individuals and foundations pour money into efforts to privatize the public schools. The implications are huge. But the school privatizers, and their lobbyists in the states, have so muddied the waters that the public does not get a clear picture of what is at stake.  The Progressive

GAO Report Paints Bleak Fiscal Outlook for States, Local Governments. A new report by the Government Accountability Office forecasts a gloomy outlook for state and local government budgets, finding an ever-widening gap between projected revenues and expenses for years to come.   Governing

TX: Perry’s Vision For University Of Texas Criticized. There’s a debate across the country over how well universities are preparing graduates for the real world, and whether colleges should operate more like businesses. That debate is particularly heated in Texas, where Gov. Rick Perry wants big changes at state colleges, including the flagship University of Texas…. And most of the reform ideas had come from a close ally, an oil man, a former UT business school professor named Jeff Sandefer. He argues that professors concentrate too much on research and writing books, and the reformist solution is to essentially turn Texas’s universities into the kind of super star community colleges where many professors would not be tenured or necessarily even full-time. They’d be experts working in their industries and they’d be paid for how much money they brought into the university and how many students they taught. And Sandefer believes universities should be run more like a business with the students being the customers.  NPR

CT: Issues rise when public-private boundary blurs. A public-private partnership is building a version of Central Park in downtown Stamford. But a public-private partnership can be a tangled web, as a ticket tiff showed last week before a gala to celebrate the opening of the first section of Mill River Park. The partnership is called the Mill River Collaborative, which organized last Thursday’s gala to also be a fundraiser to help meet its goal of collecting $20 million from private contributors. The Advocate

 

 

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NJ: Democrats Attack Potential Privatization of Motor Vehicle Inspections. Stung by their inability to block the privatization of the State Lottery, Democratic members of the Assembly Budget Committee yesterday assailed the Christie administration for considering privatization of motor vehicle inspections. NJ Spotlight

PA: Poll reveals Pennsylvania voters don’t view liquor privatization as top issue. In the Franklin & Marshall poll, voters ranked the creation of new jobs and improving the state’s economy as the most important issues facing the state. Both liquor privatization and lottery privatization were given the lowest priority ratings by voters in the poll.  Patriot-News

MD: Public-private partnerships: the new model for infrastructure. There’s a P3 in your future.Maryland is poised to join 34 states and key federal agencies in transforming the way government works. Maryland’s P3 legislation, championed by Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, enables state agencies to engage business in planning, financing, building and operating public projects, from roads and rail to schools and other infrastructure. Baltimore Sun

US Under Fire over Privatization of Prisons – video. The Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA is a multi-billion dollar company and the largest private prison provider in the country. From the company’s inception 30 years ago, the US prison population has jumped 500%. Behind me is one CCA facility, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this week and is coming off the heels of a judicial scandal in which a Pennsylvania judge was found guilty of sending children to prison in exchange for money from privately-run prisons. Stories like this illustrate a major problem with modern prison privatization.  Press TV

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States accuse prison food contractor of overbilling. Aramark, the company Michigan officials have selected to provide meals for about 45,000 state prisoners, has skimped on food and overbilled corrections departments in other states, according to audit reports. Florida and Aramark parted ways in 2008 after the state repeatedly fined the company for contract violations and an audit accused Aramark of cutting costs and boosting profits by skimping on meals. In Kentucky, corrections officers and others said a 2009 prison riot was provoked by poor food service by Aramark, state Rep. Brent Yonts, a Democrat from Greenville, said Monday.  USA TODAY

WA: Small liquor stores struggling to compete with big retail. Almost a year after the state privatized liquor sales, more and more small, independent stores around the Puget Sound region are going under. They complain they can’t compete with big retail and grocery stores. “It’s aggravating – there’s not much we can really do about it,” said Sean Niesel…. Lower prices at nearby grocery stores are driving their stores out of business… The trouble began last year when voters passed Initiative 1183 to privatize liquor sales. Immediately, liquor manufacturers offered big-box stores and grocery chains huge discounts for buying bulk, while smaller store owners still pay the full wholesale price. Add on top that 17 percent state tax and store owners say it’s impossible to compete. KOMO News

PA: More bad news for Gov. Corbett: Support slipping for sale of liquor stores. The poll found 31 percent strongly oppose privatization, up from 24 percent in February, while the number of people who strongly support the effort dropped from 34 percent to 30 percent in the same period. One thing remains unchanged in the poll: Corbett’s job approval rating is so low that just one in four voters thinks he deserves a second four-year term in 2014. Philly.com

MI: Stephen Henderson: Running prisons for profit so wrong, it’s almost criminal. Privatization works best in parts of government where the profit motive aligns closely with the need to provide a direct, definable service to constituents. Think garbage collection. Or some parts of public works or transportation. But where the success of government is measured more in social than economic terms, the profit motive can be a confounding factor, and privatization can actually lead to worse results.  That’s what we’re seeing in Michigan’s prison system, which nearly everyone agrees is both bloated with expenses and is producing less-than-desired outcomes. Detroit Free Press

NJ: As NJ considers privatizing auto inspections, contract extended for state examiner. Martinez says more than 80 percent of inspections in New Jersey are done at the state facilities, but the nationwide trend is toward privatization. He said a consultant will examine whether to privatize the entire inspection system. Newsworks.org

NV: Subcommittee nixes toll roads in Southern Nevada. A legislative subcommittee closed the door Tuesday on plans by the state Department of Transportation to install toll stations, mostly in Southern Nevada. The Senate-Assembly budget subcommittee rejected the recommendation of Gov. Brian Sandoval to spend up to $60,000 in each of the next two years to work with private companies to install toll stations on some of the major roads. Senate Bill 485 to authorize the HOT lanes died in the Assembly Transportation Committee, but the money for the proposal was still included in the department’s budget. Under the pooling motorists to travel at no charge. A single driver in these lanes would be charged a fee. Las Vegas Sun

NY: Suffolk County Executive mulls privatization of county-run health clincs. Recently, Hudson River Health Care sent in a proposal to take over the county clinic in Southampton….Bellone says he is considering handing over the other six county clinics to the company….. Suffolk’s Legislature is expected to vote on whether to privatize the Southampton clinic in June.. News 12 Long Island

 

 

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NJ: Christie vetoes bill to give NJ Legislature a say in lottery privatization plan. Chris Christie today vetoed a bill that would have required him to get the state Legislature’s approval to go ahead with a plan to privatize parts of the New Jersey Lottery. Both the state Senate and Assembly passed the bill (A3614) earlier this year amid concerns from Democratic lawmakers that the plan has been cloaked in secrecy. Assemblyman Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson), one of the most vocal critics of the plan, said the veto puts Christie “squarely against public transparency and oversight” and was “sadly not surprising.” Hunterdon County Democrat

OH: Gubernatorial candidate warns against privatizing state agencies. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald….used as an example the problems that are going on now with JobsOhio which was created when the Ohio Department of Development was privatized under Governor John Kasich. “You’ve got millions and millions of dollars going into a private corporation, what they’re calling JobsOhio, and it’s a secret as to how the money is spent,” FitzGerald said. “Now you’ve got the state auditor investigating them and subpoenaing the records to try and figure out how the money is being spent and, on behalf of the taxpayers, trying to figure out what has happened.” FitzGerald called the problems outrageous. Wilmington News Journal

The Uncertain Future of Public Roads. “The notion right now is that PPPs are the solution to the problem of not being able to use public funding as much, and that it becomes a win-win situation,” says Elliott Sclar, director of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development at Columbia University. “Right now that’s the conventional wisdom, but if you actually look at what happened to so many PPPs, you begin to see where these problems are going to begin to creep up.”  The Atlantic Cities

Fannie, Freddie Study Privatization of Multifamily Business. Privatizing the profitable multifamily businesses of Fannie Mae FNMA -0.61% and Freddie Mac FMCC 0.00% would do little to repay taxpayers for their government bailouts of the firms, and while the new companies might be viable, they would play a much smaller role in the market, according to new reports published by companies at the request of their regulator. The Federal Housing Finance Agency asked both companies last year to study the feasibility of privatizing the multifamily units, which sustained minimal losses during the housing market crash, in contrast with the hundreds of billions in losses at the companies’ single-family loan-guarantee businesses.  Wall Street Journal