News

MI: Mich. lawmakers propose privatizing some prison services. Michigan’s Corrections Department will be required to take private bids on prison clothing and electronic monitoring services under a proposed $2.02-billion budget sent to the full Senate by its appropriations committee Wednesday. All five Democrats on the 11-member committee voted against the budget proposal, mostly because of objections to the private bidding mandates. Committee Democratic Vice Chairman Glenn Anderson of Westland argued privatization of prison services is “a failed idea. It hasn’t worked for the state and it hasn’t worked across the country.”  Detroit News

OH: Foes of Cincinnati’s parking privatization plan have enough signatures to force Nov vote. Opponents of a controversial parking plan that would help balance Cincinnati’s budget by privatizing parking have gotten enough signatures to force a public vote on the issue in November, setting the stage for a fierce campaign over the next six months…. Under the parking plan, the Port of Greater Cincinnati Development would pay the city $92 million upfront and at least $3 million annually for 30 years. In exchange, the port would gain control over street parking for 30 years and off-street parking for 50 years. That would mean higher parking rates and longer meter hours, although increases would be capped.  The Republic

LA: Early prognosis for privatization. Louisiana legislators are looking closely at the first week of operations of the state’s first charity hospital placed under private management…. Officials with nearby hospitals say the closure is leading to increased — and often unpaid — visits to their emergency rooms…. More than 7,000 employees will lose their state hospital jobs, though some will be rehired by the private partners. The Advocate

LA: Analysis: EKL closure shows pitfalls for LSU deals. The closure of LSU’s public hospital in Baton Rouge left employees, community leaders and local lawmakers declaring a breach of the public’s trust, criticizing a scarcity of information and describing a litany of still unanswered concerns. Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration would be wise to take lessons from those hard feelings as the governor seeks to privatize eight other university-run hospitals around Louisiana that care for the uninsured and that train many of the state’s medical students. San Francisco Chronicle

PA: Bucks GOP may dash Pa. booze reform. The Harrisburg Patriot-News reports that this has to do with state Sen. Chuck McIlhinney’s friendship with Pasquale “Pat” Deon Jr. Deon is the Mr. Big of state Republican politics. He chairs SEPTA. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. He has gaming and construction interests. He is a GOP rainmaker. He also owns a beer distributorship in Fairless Hills, Deon’s Beverages. His business would certainly face increased competition if the state unleashes free market forces by dissolving its overpriced, poorly run, crummy-selection, DMV-like booze business. phillyBurbs.com (blog)

WI: New Report Exposes Bradley Foundation Funding Behind “Massive” Campaign to Promote School Privatization. In a new report, entitled “P is for Payoff: Inside the Bradley Foundation’s Campaign to Privatize Education in Wisconsin,” the non-profit activist group One Wisconsin Now has detailed the Bradley Foundation’s funding of a coordinated campaign to promote school privatization in Wisconsin and across the nation. The report “reveals a web of right-wing groups are part of a $31 million-plus propaganda campaign pushing a massive privatization of public education in Wisconsin. Underwriting the effort is the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation, headed by Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign co-chair, Michael Grebe.” PR Watch

TN: Knox Countians Solidly Against TVA Being Privatized. This week’s Knoxville Focus poll asked voters the question, “In your opinion, should the Tennessee Valley Authority be privatized”? More than 80% of likely voters said that no, TVA should not be privatized. The Knoxville Focus

TN: Opinion: Why Privatizing the TVA Would Be a Dam Shame. Imagine the uproar if the Washington Monument or the Jefferson Memorial were up for sale. These national treasures are safe, of course, but another public monument — the Tennessee Valley Authority — is not. President Barack Obama’s 2014 budget plan proposes a strategic review of TVA, the biggest publicly owned U.S. power company, which could lead to its sale.  Bloomberg

The Privatization of Water: Nestlé Denies that Water is a Fundamental Human Right. The current Chairman and former CEO of Nestlé, the largest producer of food products in the world, believes that the answer to global water issues is privatization. This statement is on record from the wonderful company that has peddled junk food in the Amazon, has invested money to thwart the labeling of GMO-filled products, has a disturbing health and ethics record for its infant formula, and has deployed a cyber army to monitor Internet criticism and shape discussions in social media. Center for Research on Globalization

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NJ: CWA protests NJ lottery privatization plan that could lead to dozens of job losses. The New Jersey Treasury Department said today that 63 of the state lottery’s 136 public employees could lose their jobs if the Christie administration signs a contract with a private company to take over parts of the lottery NJ.com

NJ: Hard Questions, Heartfelt Concern Abound at Camden Schools Forum. Mayor Dana Redd played host. She did not hide the fact that she supports the state intervention even though it was her board appointees who led the district for the last two years. The audience – a mix of city residents, district teachers and others — had plenty of pointed questions, with some taking shots at Redd’s leadership and others expressing concerns about charter schools steadily replacing the district schools. The comments were hardly ringing endorsements of the state’s plans, either, with some sharply critical of Cerf and what they see as his and Christie’s broader political agenda to privatize public education. NJ Spotlight

LA: Jindal won’t seek legislative backing on LSU deals. Bobby Jindal said Thursday he won’t seek legislative approval of his administration’s LSU hospital privatization agreements, though both the House and Senate have voted that they want such decision-making authority…. The Republican governor is pushing to privatize all but one of the university-run hospitals that care for the poor and uninsured around the state and train many medical students. This week, the Senate adopted a resolution by Sen. Ed Murray, D-New Orleans, that includes a requirement that the hospital deals get approval from the Senate Finance Committee. San Francisco Chronicle

LA: Opinion: Tulane and LSU use privatization for capital gain at expense of poor. Eight years after Katrina, LSU and Tulane still use their political capital to ensure the old Charity Hospital building stay closed. That way plans for a publicly funded research hospital, which the two schools would use, can progress. In the process, LSU and Tulane displaced Lower Mid-City, a neighborhood that had come back after the storm thanks in part to federal grants. The institutions, in accordance with other health care reforms in Louisiana, have pushed out the public hospital system and privatized it whenever possible, further disenfranchising the poor. The Hullabaloo Online           

FL: Brainstorming Baker County Commissioners look to privatizing, other means to grapple with budget. The Baker County Commission tasked the county manager this week with researching privatizing services and curbing building regulations as ways to raise money to balance future budgets and avoid further dipping into valued reserves….Suggested areas of privatization included: waste hauling, right-of-way mowing, emergency medical services, animal control, courthouse security, dump truck usage, recreation and consolidating purchasing. Florida Times-Union

FL: Opinion: The Parent Trigger Bill: A shot at privatization. The current legislation being considered by the Florida legislature (known as the Parent Trigger Bill) is the latest assault on the public education system. Promoted as a means of parent empowerment, (nothing about turning a profit) the Parent Trigger Bill allows parents to petition for dramatic changes at failing public schools. However, most parent groups feel it’s nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Careful analysis of this legislation reveals its clear but unstated goal, public dollars for private companies and a diversion of resources from the public education system. Coral Daily Breeze

UT: Tooele County cuts more jobs, privatizes local poverty assistance. Citing “a major financial crisis,” Tooele County will no longer publicly subsidize its food bank, transitional housing, emergency poverty assistance or domestic violence assistance programs, opting instead for an agreement with Valley Mental Health to privatize those services, officials announced Wednesday. Eleven county employees also will be laid off as part of the privatization, which begins May 15 after a transition period. Deseret News

NC: Editorial – Legislators’ ‘fixes’ for public education may inflict irreparable damage. For a group of politicians who claim they want to strengthen our public schools, the Honorables have a strange way of going about it. In their world, better public schools can be had only by siphoning off students and money into charter and private schools, and by eliminating the cap on class sizes in the lower grades, a factor that has been shown to improve academic achievement. StarNewsOnline.com

 

 

 

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NJ: US congressmen ask feds to review Christie’s lottery privatization plan. New Jersey’s six Democratic congressmen asked the U.S. Justice Department today to review the Christie administration’s plan for a private company to take over parts of the New Jersey lottery to make sure it doesnot violate federal law… The lottery is New Jersey’s fourth-largest source ofrevenue, generating $2.6 billion in ticket sales a year. Last year, the lottery provided the state in $950 million in revenue, financing scholarships and programs for military veterans and the disabled. North Star, the only group to bid on the contract, will pay the state $120 million up front and keep part of future revenue increases.  Hunterdon County Democrat

IN: Mayor drops plan to privatize City-County Building. When Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard opened the City-County Building to the. possibility of private management for the first time in 50 years last summer, his staff hoped to land a big upfront payment, plus annual savings. None of that came to fruition. … Four private-sector real estate teams responded to the “request for information” that the Office of Enterprise Development issued last June, and all proposed using a long-term management agreement to finance a multimillion-dollar payment to the city. But none of them could do that while also beating the building authority on annual expenses, said David Rosenberg, the city’s director of enterprise development.  Indianapolis Business Journal

NC: Group opposes school vouchers. In a press release send to this and other newspapers, Public Schools First NC strongly opposes H.B. 944, a bill they say proposes to spend $90 million of taxpayer money over the next two years to subsidize private school tuition. The group – comprised of citizens, parents, teachers, businesses and organizations – alleged that the proposed legislation will take money away from already underfunded public schools, with little accountability to taxpayers. Vouchers are a failing proposition all around: they fail to help the students who most need them; they provide little benefit for the students who do use them; and they drain resources from the one public institution best situated to educate all children: the public schools, according to the press release.  Roanoke Chowan News Herald

NC: Opinion: The Danger of McCrory’s Bobby Jindal Imitation. Gov. Pat McCrory appears to be on a privatization spree that could have serious implications for jobs and health care in North Carolina. And none of it seems very well thought out. McCrory announced a plan Monday that would turn over the state’s economic development efforts to a private nonprofit corporation he would chair, essentially abolishing the Department of Commerce….A 2011 report from the national group Good Jobs First finds that several states that have privatized economic development efforts have seen a series of problems, including misuse of taxpayer money, excessive executive bonuses and questionable subsidy deals. It sounds like exactly what we don’t need in North Carolina. Southern Pines Pilot

LA: LSU board approves privatization of New Orleans, Lafayette hospitals. The Louisiana State University Board of Supervisors unanimously signed off on the privatizations of public hospitals in New Orleans and Lafayette Wednesday… The agreement between LSU and the private hospital operators, known as Cooperative Endeavor Agreements, will be presented to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget later this year. The state Senate has also passed a resolution requiring the Senate Finance Committee to approve any privatizations. It’s not clear whether that measure, by Sen. Ed Murray, D-New Orleans, will be binding on the administration. NOLA.com

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LA: Senate requires LSU to get legislative approval before privatizing hospitals. Without debate Tuesday, senators approved legislation that says the LSU Board of Supervisors needs the backing of the Senate Finance Committee to privatize the hospitals. There was no discussion of the resolution before it was adopted without objection. NOLA.com

OK: Office of Privatization. Oklahoma is getting ready to pass a law to allow a state agency to study the aspects of privatizing parts of state government. Senate Bill 1008, to create the Office of Privatization, has now passed the House and the Senate. With privatization supported by a majority of lawmakers it could easily move to the governor. Senator Greg Treat created the bill to have a one-stop shop for the issue of privatization under the control of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services. “It’s in order to have a repository of information and expertise on how to privatize state functions. Currently everything we do is on an ad hoc basis, so if we move to privatize something we have to recreate the wheel every time.”  KOSU           

IL: Illiana opponents out in force as officials narrow toll road’s footprint. Officials hope to develop the highway as a public-private partnership. Although commonly known as the Illiana Expressway, the project likely would be a toll road. The latest estimated cost is $1.25 billion for the 47-mile project. Gates-Hamann’s father-in-law, Will Township Road Commissioner Bruce Hamann, contends the “47-mile fence” would close county roads and many north-south township roads. He said that would hamper police, fire and ambulance responses, as well as lengthen the time children spend on school buses. Chicago Tribune

CA: California: Firm Rigs Data In Bid To Keep Red Light Cameras. Ever since November when voters in Murrieta, California rejected red light cameras at the ballot box, American Traffic Solutions (ATS) has been on a campaign to turn them back on. The strategy has been two-fold: use the courts to overturn the public’s decision, then convince the city council to reactivate the devices in the name of public safety. Anti-camera activists say they have caught the photo ticketing company manipulating data to achieve these ends.  TheNewspaper.com

Role reversal: Obama talk of privatizing TVA upsets GOP lawmakers. Privatizing TVA has been proposed before “and been determined to be a very bad idea,” added Rep. John Duncan, R-Tenn. Administration officials emphasized that privatization was just one option being considered. Jackson Clarion Ledger

 

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WI: Wisconsin to pay $6.3 million more annually for LogistiCare replacement. State taxpayers will be shelling out an extra $6.3 million per year for medical transportation for Wisconsin Medicaid recipients once MTM Inc. takes over for LogistiCare, according to a Journal Sentinel analysis of bids. Just a few years ago, state officials estimated that having a private firm dispatch rides would save the state $4 million a year. The Journal Sentinel analysis raises questions about whether the privatization really saves state taxpayers money. Journal Sentinel

IL: Chicago City Council effort to regulate privatization bogs down. Introduced last November by Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th), the Privatization Transparency and Accountability Ordinance has been bottled up in Ald. Dick Mell’s (33rd) Rules Committee, even though a majority of the City Council members have signed on as co-sponsors. The ordinance would require a hearing on privatization proposals involving an asset valued at $250,000 or more. It also would require a cost-effectiveness study, competitive bidding and other reforms. Until now, plans to privatize services or assets have tended to stay under the radar until the last moment, keeping public scrutiny to a minimum.  Chicago Sun Times

NY: Privatization of the Commons in Mayor Bloomberg’s New York – Part I….But last month, quietly, and without any public notification, Washington Square Park too fell victim to the Bloomberg Administration’s penchant for privatizing “the commons,” and management and control of the famed “town square” was handed over to a newly created private Conservancy, whose director also just happens to take home a salary from … take a guess… the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.  Huffington Post

PA: Third Pa. state agency points to potential legal problems in Corbett’s private lottery deal. The chief counsel of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board wrote in a letter last month that the proposed contract documents are ambiguous and do not say clearly what kinds of new gambling Camelot Global Services would be allowed to operate.  As a result, it is impossible to say whether it infringes on the gaming board’s authority under state casino gambling laws or creates illegal forms of gambling, the board’s top lawyer, Douglas Sherman, wrote.  The Republic

ID: Company that runs Idaho’s largest private prison says employees falsified staffing records. A private company that operates Idaho’s largest prison acknowledged Thursday that its employees falsified nearly 4,800 hours of staffing records over seven months last year in violation of its contract with the state. Corporation of America is the latest in a string of staffing problems alleged or being investigated at the Idaho Correctional Center south of Boise. Earlier this year, the Idaho Department of Correction asked state police to investigate staffing discrepancies at the lockup.  Washington Post

CA: Conservative Think Tank Questions Toll Road Agency’s Unsustainable Financial Plan. For the second time in four months, the financial condition of Orange County’s Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA), the public agency that has been trying for years to pave a toll road through San Onofre State Beach, is being called into question This time, the Los Angeles Times reports that the Pacific Research Institute, a conservative think tank based in San Francisco, has released a new analysis of TCA’s finances that concludes “the operations of these toll roads presently appear to be unsustainable and likely have been unworkable from their inception.” The report explains that TCA’s shaky financial plans and debt structure will make its financial status worse, “likely forcing a default or another restructuring.”  NRDC Swithboard

Legislative fiscal analysts question Jindal budget. The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Office told the Senate Finance Committee that some of the savings the governor expects through anti-fraud efforts and privatization initiatives seem to be overstated, which could throw the 2013-14 budget proposal out of balance. Shawn Hotstream, with the fiscal office, said the governor’s budget for the fiscal year opening July 1 might have underestimated how much money it will cost to operate the LSU hospitals under anticipated privatization deals. San Francisco Chronicle

NH: New Hampshire Views: Private prisons were a terrible idea. Prison privatization was probably not going to happen in New Hampshire any time soon, but that doesn’t mean the state wasted the $171,000 it spent on a consultant to study the question.mIndeed, after months of reviewing four companies’ proposals to build and/or operate prisons in New Hampshire, the consultant, MGT of America, and state officials issued two reports last week that made clear just how bad an idea this was. One can only hope that it is dead beyond hope of resurrection. Concord Monitor

MD: Maryland Gives Up On Traffic Camera Reform. Photo enforcement firms also ended the day with a celebration after their investment paid off with the defeat of all legislation that might have imposed limits or quality checks on their ticketing operations…. The money flowing to Annapolis, not counting cash infusions from the insurance industry and other pro-camera lobbyists (view 2009 lobbying cash), had the intended impact. Supporters of reform started the session with significant momentum. A scandal in Baltimore revealed that more than five percent of speed camera tickets went to vehicle owners who were not speeding. A legislative audit blasted the reliability of the State Highway Administration’s freeway photo radar program. Local jurisdictions have been openly flouting provisions of the existing photo enforcement statute. TheNewspaper.com

 

 

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NC: NC’s HHS secretary looking for payers to help her privatize Medicaid. Many are concerned a push toward privatization will deny care to patients as for-profit companies look to cut costs. MedCity News

NC: Opinion: McCrory privitization kick is a bad idea. “Governor Pat McCrory appears to be on a privatization spree that could have  serious implications for jobs and health care in North Carolina,” writes Chris Fitzsimon on his blog at NC Policy Watch. “And none of it seems very well thought out.’ News Observer

LA: AG says Jindal doesn’t need legislative approval to privatize LSU hospitals. Gov. Bobby Jindal doesn’t need legislative approval to privatize the LSU public hospitals, the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office said Thursday. Alexandria Town Talk

NJ: NJ to award contract in lottery privatization. New Jersey’s Treasury Department announced plans on Friday to award a sales and marketing contract for the state lottery to a private company….New Jersey has the nation’s eighth largest state lottery. The lottery grossed $2.8 billion in revenue last year. The state Senate passed a measure last month giving the Legislature a say in plans to privatize the lottery. San Francisco Chronicle

AL: Privatizing public schools: Alabama Accountability Act could create all sorts of problems….It is an interesting idea; however, the end result in many Black Belt counties would be three state-subsidized school systems. There would be the white school private school that came into being when the schools were integrated. There would be the new private school for the less affluent (mostly black) students that would be created under Campbell’s plan. And there would be the public school, if by that time a public school still existed….It would be a twisted trail to follow, but if it came to pass (a very big “if”) it would accomplish the goal of those who are putting money into the Black Alliance. It would privatize public education. Anniston Star

TN: Editorial: Privatizing TVA bad idea for region and whole nation. The Obama administration plans to conduct a “strategic review” of TVA to determine whether all or part of the federal corporation should be sold to the private sector. The proposal is part of the administration’s Creating a 21st Century Government initiative, which focuses on cutting waste, streamlining agencies and other reforms. We do not need a strategic review to know the privatization of TVA — which is more than just a utility — is not in the best interests of its 9 million customers or the American public as a whole. This is not the first time a privatization proposal has been floated, and it is still bad idea. Knoxville News Sentinel

CA: Fresno trash fight starts in court. Supporters and opponents of Mayor Ashley Swearengin’s effort to outsource the city’s home garbage-collection service will gather Monday morning in front of Superior Court Judge Dale Ikeda to claim the other side’s got it all wrong. Fresno Bee

IA: OUR OPINION: Idea of privatizing workforces raises concerns….Radig’s most recent proposal is to privatize workforces, excluding directors, at the Art Center and Pubic Museum. He proposes the Art Center Association and Museum and Historical Association raise funds for salaries and benefits. Savings for the city, he estimates, would total some $800,000, no insignificant sum…..Because we question the ability of their boards to raise the additional revenue necessary to cover salaries and benefits, we believe this idea would negatively impact the quality and quantity of public programming at the Art Center and museum. Because we appreciate the importance and value to local quality of life of a strong Art Center and museum, we believe the city should seek to avoid diminishing them. Sioux City Journal

 

 

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AL: President Obama’s proposed budget could privatize TVA. TVA provides power to more than 480,000 homes in North Alabama. A Tennessee lawmaker says if it’s privatized customers could see their electric bills rise. President Obama’s latest budget proposal includes a review into the Tennessee Valley Authority. WAAY

MA: No noon meal for kids in debt at middle school. Students at an Attleboro, Massachusetts, middle school went hungry this week, if they had a negative balance on their pre-paid lunch cards. Five cents of debt was enough for cafeteria employees at the Coehlo Middle School to instruct kids at least one day this week to dump out the food they would have normally eaten. About 25 children left the lunchroom with empty stomachs, said Whitson’s Culinary Group in a statement. The company runs the school’s cafeteria. Principal Andrew Boles apologized and blamed the culinary company.  WJAR

FL: The dark side of Parent Trigger. The crusade to privatize public education continues gaining ground in the Florida Legislature, where the controversial bill to have a traditional neighborhood school transformed into a charter school, among other options, sails at full speed under the premise of empowering parents to turn around a school that’s failing their children. Many legislators — some with strong economic ties to the charter school industry — promise the moon when describing the bill known as the Parent Trigger Act. Nonetheless, they present little evidence of its success. Because the fact is that there is none. Miami Herald

IN: Stand With Indiana University Strikers. On April 11th and 12th, while the Indiana University Board of Trustees holds its annual meeting, students and staff throughout the statewide system will walk out of class and off the job to protest critical issues plaguing higher education across the country—from sky-rocketing tuition costs to privatization schemes to barriers facing undocumented students. The Nation

NJ: Newark Students Walk Out To Protest Privatization Plans And Budget Cuts. Though Governor Chris Christie refers to students protesting his privatization plans as drug mules, the students of Newark decided yesterday to stand up for their right to an education and walked out of class to protest the attack on their public school system. Firedoglake

CO: Privatization of U.S. 36 maintenance, operations launches highway into new era. Starting later this year and lasting until 2063, U.S. 36 between Denver and Boulder will be maintained and operated by a private consortium known as Plenary Roads Denver…. But public-private partnerships, or P3s, do not sit comfortably with everyone…. Phineas Baxandall, a senior analyst for tax and budget policy with PIRG and author of “Private Roads, Public Costs,” said his analysis of P3 road projects in Indiana and Chicago found that private investors would recoup their investments in less than 20 years even though the P3 deals had terms of 75 and 99 years, respectively. “The state of Colorado might think it’s wiser than the Wall Street financiers on this, but it’s the Wall Street financiers’ job not to lose on these kinds of bets,” Baxandall said. “It’s very hard to know what the traffic patterns will be in the future. CDOT should make sure that any contract it signs should give it leverage to adjust the terms according to changing circumstances.”  Daily Camera

NC: Governor McCrory’s stated reasons for privatizing NC’s award-winning Medicaid program are simply false. In announcing his plan to privatize North Carolina’s award-winning Medicaid program, Community Care of NC, Governor Pat McCrory laid out five key reasons that in his view privatization is necessary.  The only problem?  None of them hold up under the even the most cursory scrutiny.  The Progressive Pulse

Failed Privatizations — the Thatcher Legacy. What concerned voters were the results of privatization that Mrs. Thatcher had not warned them about. Prices did not decline proportionally to cost cuts and productivity gains. Many services were cut back, especially on the least utilized transport routes. The largest privatized bus company was charged with cut-throat monopoly practices. The water system broke down, while consumer charges leapt. Electricity prices were shifted against residential consumers in favor of large industrial users. Economic inequality widened as the industrial labor force shrunk by two million from 1979 to 1997, while wages stagnated in the face of soaring profits for the privatized companies. The tax cuts financed by their selloff turned out to benefit mainly the rich.  OpEdNews.com

 

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Study Documents Optimism Bias In Toll Road Traffic Forecasts. Toll roads around the world are struggling. Moody’s Investment Services on March 21 warned of a possible downgrade of the SH130 toll road in Austin, Texas because the 50 percent fewer people used the road than projected. In Virginia, the newly opened 495 high occupancy toll lanes have continued to disappoint officials. None of this is surprising according to a Virginia group, the Reston Citizens Association, which earlier this year released an extensive study of the problems inherent in toll road forecasting. A review of 104 toll roads around the world showed toll roads suffered from “optimism bias” that results in traffic forecasts being inflated by 25 to 30 percent, on average. The problem is more acute in the United States, where twenty-six toll roads reported 109 percent inflation in their forecasts, according to a National Highway Cooperative Research Program review. TheNewspaper.com

Thatcher’s Privatizations Cast a Long Shadow. Margaret Thatcher, who died Monday, reshaped modern Britain by selling state-owned companies into private hands, paving the way for a spate of such dispositions around Europe and the world that continues, even here, three decades later. Wall Street Journal

PA: How a Bucks County GOP feud could affect liquor privatization. The bad blood is decades old, personal and could affect Gov. Tom Corbett’s attempt to privatize the state liquor system. PennLive.com

PA: Why is the Pa. Convention Center a privatization target? Is it because Gov. Corbett advocates privatizing government services and wants a win now that his plans to farm out the state lottery and State Stores have slowed? “I didn’t feel pressure from the commonwealth to do this,” Gregory J. Fox, the Philadelphia lawyer who chairs the center’s board, said. Sure, Corbett’s deputy chief of staff, Kathleen Bruder, represents the state at board meetings. Is it because the would-be private managers are politically connected? Philly.com

NC: GOP called privatizing Commerce “incredibly dumb and dangerous” when Democrats proposed it. Republican Gov. Jim Martin once called the replacement of the Department of Commerce with a public-private partnership “an incredibly dumb and dangerous idea.” That was back in 1988 when Democratic Lt. Gov. Bob Jordan, his opponent in the governor’s race proposed something very similar to what GOP Gov. Pat McCrory is now recommending. At a rally on top of a downtown Charlotte parking deck, Jordan proposed creating a NC. Economic Development Corp which would be run by a panel of private citizens appointed by the governor. News and Observer

NC: $53M spent on N.C. toll roads ‘lost’. A total of $53.7 million in North Carolina taxpayer money has been spent on planning three toll roads that could be scrapped. Triangle Business Journal

 IL: Will Emanuel back privatization transparency measure?. Community and public interest groups are calling on Mayor Emanuel to support a privatization transparency ordinance that is expected to be considered by the City Council Rules Committee on Wednesday. The Privatization Transparency and Accountability Ordinance, submitted last November by Alderman Roderick Sawyer (7th) and sponsored by 32 aldermen, would require a cost-effectiveness study and public hearings when the city seeks to contract out services and operations. Newstips

LA: Poll shows drop in Jindal’s favorability ratings. A statewide survey found that Gov. Bobby Jindal’s approval rating sank to 38 percent following recent state budget cuts, public hospital privatizations and a proposed rewriting of the state’s tax code. Pollsters with Southern Media and Opinion Research found “pessimism over the state’s direction” among voters, findings that a separate, unrelated poll by LSU also tracked. The Advocate

MD: Maryland has passed measure to facilitate public-private partnerships. The legislation creates a streamlined process for the private sector to take part in building public roads or buildings, so participants would have a better understanding of what to expect. State estimates have projected additional public-private partnerships could contribute up to 6 to 10 percent of Maryland’s $3.1 billion annual capital budget and create as many as 4,000 new jobs. Washington Post

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CA: San Fernando Valley’s Ivy Academia charter school founders convicted of embezzling public funds. A jury convicted the founders of the San Fernando Valley-based Ivy Academia charter school Friday of embezzling public money and filing false tax returns. Tatyana Berkovich and her husband, Yevgeny “Eugene” Selivanov, were charged with using $200,000 in public school funds for personal expenses and for a private school they owned.  Daily News

TX: Fastest Toll Road in Financial Trouble. San Antonio Express News is reporting SH 130, the toll road that stretches from Seguin to Georgetown, is not making the money expected….Now,  Moody Investor Service says it may downgrade the credit rating of the SH 130 Concession Company, the private company that backed the making of this toll road. Reports indicate if the road does not make more money it may not be able to pay its debts, which include a $430,000 federal loan.  FoxSanAntonio.com

NY: Nursing home politics. A day after the legislature again stalled the vote on McCoy’s plan to privatize the Colonie facility, GOP-sponsored robocalls began hitting in the districts of four Democratic legislators on Saturday. Albany Times Union

NC: Gov. McCrory seeks to privatize much of Commerce Department. The Partnership for Prosperity, headed by a board of directors that McCrory would chair, would oversee small business development, entrepreneurship, international investment, imports and exports and travel and tourism. The nonprofit will leverage existing state funds to get the private sector more involved in economic development, McCrory and Decker said. Eventually, they said, less state money will be needed to run programs now handled by the Department of Commerce and regional groups that receive state funding. WRAL.com

NC: 3 questions that Governor McCrory needs to answer about his privatization scheme. According to one recent report, states that have adopted public private partnerships for their economic development efforts have seen the misuse of taxpayer dollars, questionable incentive awards to failing companies, the appearance of pay-to-play incentive granting to those companies providing financial support to the partnership, and frequent lack of transparency and accountability with how the partnership spends taxpayer dollars. And to top it all off, many of these partnerships haven’t proven to be very effective in generating the job creation results promised. The Progressive Pulse

IN: Top Ind. senator wants funding for new toll road. A key Indiana senator wants funding for a proposed toll road around Indianapolis’ congested Interstate 465 bypass – a proposal that was dropped in 2007 amid strong public opposition. WSBT-TV

 

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Arkansas wants to privatize its Medicaid Expansion: Is this the start of a trend? How do you get recalcitrant Republicans like Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett to support expanding Medicaid, which is a key feature of Obamacare? The answer is to do it through privatization.  Philly.com

6 Reasons to Be Wary of Public-Private Partnerships. Little or no democratic oversight; Competition stifled; Public sectors are saddled with the risk; The voice of the community is missing; Opportunities missed for community benefits and; Absence of strategic planning.  Huffington Post

NC: NC health secretary on privatizing Medicare: Transparency is ‘pretty dangerous’ The Republican North Carolina Department Health and Human Services (DHHS) secretary this week told reporters asking for information about the state’s plan to privatize Medicaid that “transparency can get pretty dangerous.” Raw Story

NC: Medicaid privatization risky for poor, disabled. Gov. Pat McCrory rolled out an ambitious but dubious plan to privatize North Carolina’s Medicaid system….The primary stated purpose of the plan is to transfer the financial risks and cost overruns of the Medicaid system from the state and its taxpayers to the for-profit companies that would receive the bids to administer the services. But the surest way for these managed care corporations to ensure profitability would be to limit access to health care and cut critical medical services to the state’s poor, elderly and disabled people.  Rocky Mount Telegram

TX: Traffic On Speedy Texas Toll Road Falls Well Short Of Expectations. Texas 130, a toll road whose 85-mile-per-hour speed limit is the fastest in the country, has drawn about half the number of drivers expected in its first months of operation and Moody’s Investor Service says that performance is poor enough that the private company that built it faces a downgrading of its credit rating. KWTX

VA: Virginia Residents Protest Against Toll Roads. Unlike most “not in my backyard” efforts, the group is not protesting an actual expansion of the interstate. The I-395 toll project is an effort to re-stripe the existing footprint of lanes that are for carpool use during rush hour and free for anyone to use during off-peak hours. Once converted to tolling, the lanes will run for the profit of Transurban, an Australian corporation.  TheNewspaper.com

FL: Budget would privatize all DOC health services. Both House and Senate versions of the state’s $74 billion budget contain provisions to privatize prison health services in facilities across the majority of the state. Tallahassee.com

OH: Police, Firefighters Angry Over Role in Parking Plan. The battle to privatize parking in Cincinnati was evident today in Cincinnati council chambers. The mayor says the parking plan is the only way to save police and fire jobs. but others are saying not so fast.  On Thursday night, police and fire union leaders told Local 12 they’re tired of being the sacrificial lambs when it comes to solving the budget problem. While council met to talk about options to avoid the cuts – opponents to the parking plan turned in more than 19,000 signatures to put the parking issue on the ballot.   WKRC TV Cincinnati

OH: Ohio State parking privatization hits bumps in year 1. The parking privatization on Ohio State’s campus has been described as smooth by some university officials, however the first academic year under the transition hasn’t gone off without a hitch. The Lantern