News

WA: Thurston County: Spike in teenagers shoplift booze now available at grocery stores

Since private stores started selling hard liquor in June, more teenagers in Thurston county are shoplifting booze that’s now available at grocery stores.  The Republic

CA: Los Angeles Schools Win Key Court Battle with Charters

Los Angeles school district officials won a key legal battle with charter schools this week, when an appeals court struck down a ruling that could have opened up vast numbers of classrooms for charters, while also creating potential hardships for traditional neighborhood schools.   Governing

PA: Privatizing lottery not a winning proposition, Pa. Dems say

The state s auditor general elect has joined Democratic colleagues in protesting Gov Tom Corbett s effort to put a private company in charge of the Pennsylvania Lottery. NewsWorks

VA: State public-private protocols faulty

Gov. Bob McDonnell has made frequent use of the law, which grants the executive branch broad authority to bypass the legislature when it comes to negotiating public-private partnerships. The results have been uniformly bad, particularly for the residents of Hampton Roads, who will start paying tolls in 2014 to cross the Elizabeth River between Norfolk and Portsmouth. But a recent report on the PPTA, commissioned by the Southern Environmental Law Center and authored by a longtime Virginia policy analyst, underscores its shortcomings, and how its inconsistent and opaque application can provide counterproductive results for taxpayers.   The Virginian-Pilot

FL: State Drops Bid to Privatize Tag Services

Backing away from a possible court fight, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles announced Friday that it will halt its attempt to bid license tag services to private vendors. Tax collectors — who distribute state tags — and two manufacturing groups tried to block the change by lobbying elected officials and filing legal action against the department.  The Ledger

OH: City, Union Reach Deal Over Parking Privatization

In order to win the support of the largest city employees union for the leasing of Cincinnati’s parking facilities, the city administration has agreed to pay raises and no layoffs for three years. There’s a catch — municipal employees only get the raises and job security if the city’s parking meters, garages and surface lots are leased to a private company for 30 years.   Cincinnati CityBeat

OH: Ohio Awaits Turnpike Study

Many Ohioans are eagerly awaiting the results of a yearlong study on the future of the Ohio Turnpike, but almost everybody, it seems, assumes that the study will call for privatization of the 241-mile-long toll road. The study, which cost the state $3.4 million, is due by the end of the month. Governor John Kasich, a Republican, has raised the idea of privatizing the toll road or rest stops, but he says he will rely on the report before making any final decisions.   Stateline

GA: Price for I-85 toll lanes soars to record high

The cost to use interstate toll roads in metro Atlanta, which has been steadily rising in recent months, has hit a new record. WTVC

TSA screener privatization program needs better guidelines, says GAO

The program that has seen 16 airports around the nation move to private screeners at security checkpoints in lieu of TSA agents needs better guidance and a formal process to measure performance before it is more widely implemented, said a study released by the government’s watdog agency. Government Security News

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IN: Indiana privatization consultant heads Ohio Turnpike study

According to his resume, KPMG employee Tim Wilschetz was paid to advise the “private consortia” bidding on the Indiana Toll Road in 2005.   The following year the road was leased to foreign investors who, after doubling tolls on the road, are now on track to default on their loans to finance the deal. The project didn’t work out too well for Indiana either.  Plunderbund

PA: Pennsylvania Legislators Oppose Privatizing State Lottery

One state lawmaker maintains that the process of outsourcing lottery management is shrouded in secrecy and could result in the diversion of hundreds of millions of dollars from vital state services.  NACSonline

WV: Fight against toll road helps trucker get elected in West Virginia

Scott Cadle, a professional trucker and small-business owner from Leitart, WV, says his battle against a toll road in his district resonated with voters and helped get him elected to a seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates.   Land Line

FL: Ruling shows how legislative shortcut misused – opinion

Rather than proposing a bill to authorize the health care privatization for the rest of the state for fear that it might meet the same fate as their effort to privatize 30 prisons, persistent and undeterred legislators tried another tactic — to have the Legislative Budget Commission authorize the change for the rest of the state for Corizon Health Caree…Circuit Court Judge John Cooper in Tallahassee said “the attempt of the Legislative Budget Commission to provide funding for this contract is void and ineffective as it violates Article III, Section 19(c)(3) of the Florida Constitution.” The state of Florida plans to appeal this ruling, further eroding adherence to rules and procedures and at an additional cost to taxpayers. So it seems no lessons have been learned. The state should immediately drop any costly plans to appeal and should make the case for this policy change directly to lawmakers through the legislative process.   Hernando Today

Stephen Goldstein: Jeb a moderate? Don’t believe it

By the late 1990’s, Republicans doubled down on extremism but perverted Goldwater’s words into a message he would have disavowed: “extremism in the defense of privatization is no vice” and “moderation in the pursuit of injustice is a virtue. And one of its most ardent advocates was and is Jeb Bush. Elected Florida governor in 1998, he spent his two terms consolidating executive power and turning over government functions to crony, for-profit companies with little or no accountability.  Sun-Sentinel

Hospital privatization plan deferred

Employees of the University Medical Center in Las Vegas held placards and protest signs Wednesday as Clark County commissioners pondered the future of the hospital. The issue is whether to turn UMC into a private hospital as commissioners look for a way to keep the hospital from going bankrupt. A final vote was expected Wednesday, but commissioners decided to seek other options and submit legislation to the state’s capital in Carson City to solve the financial problem. The union opposes the privatization plan. On its website, www.seiunv.org, it says that UMC, the state’s only public hospital, is the community’s only safety net.  Examiner

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PA: State’s financial adviser doesn’t hide connection to only bidder for Pennsylvania lottery

A firm hired to advise Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration in its pursuit of privatizing the Pennsylvania Lottery management is no stranger to the company interested in taking over the lottery. The state’s financial adviser, Greenhill & Co., worked on the $576 million sale of the Camelot Group to its present owner, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, in 2010. One of Camelot’s companies, Camelot Global Services PA, was the only firm to submit a bid to take over running the state’s $3 billion-plus lottery enterprise for the next 20 to 30 years. Now both Greenhill, which has a financial incentive in its contract if the lottery’s management goes private, and Camelot stand to make millions if Corbett signs the privatization deal.  The Patriot-News

FL: Judge: Florida’s Attempt to Privatize Prison Health Care Violated Law

For the second time in over a year, a state judge has ruled that the Florida Legislature violated the law when it tried to privatize the state’s role in operating prisons. Leon County Circuit Court Judge John Cooper on Tuesday struck down an attempt by the Florida Legislature to privatize prison health care by using a budgetary process instead of making the change through a full vote of lawmakers. Gov. Rick Scott and the Department of Corrections said they will appeal the ruling, warning that the state now faces a $90 million deficit because they had counted saving that much over the next two years by having private contractors provide prison health care.  Governing

NE: Report: Child Welfare Privatization Went Too Fast

A new report says Nebraska’s effort to privatize child welfare services wasn’t necessarily bad — it just went too fast. The report to Nebraska lawmakers says the push to privatize in a three-month period created “an extraordinary level of upheaval” among organizations that worked with the government to help children. The privatization experiment has faced problems since it began in 2009. Four of Nebraska’s five service providers have ended or lost their contracts with the state, citing a lack of funding and an overwhelming number of abused, neglected and troubled children. 1011Now

NJ: Assembly panel to examine lottery privatization proposal this morning

The Christie administration has put out a request looking for a private company to manage the New Jersey Lottery. But Democrats in the Legislature, along with a coalition of small businesses and union members, are questioning the proposal, worried it could reduce revenue to the state and block small businesses from selling tickets.  NorthJersey.com

NH: Privatizing N.H. prisons in for a cooler reception

The Executive Council voted yesterday to continue studying privatizing the state’s prisons, but going private has lost its biggest supporters at the State House. Incoming governor Maggie Hassan opposes putting inmate care in private hands, as does a majority of the next Executive Council. And Democrats, who have taken control of the House, haven’t shared their Republican counterparts’ appetite for privatization. But partial privatization – allowing a private company to build a prison the state would run – may have support in at least the corner office.   Concord Monitor

Charter Schools Under-Enroll Students With Special Needs, New Review Finds

Several recent reports, including one from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, have found that charter schools generally under-enroll special education students when compared to conventional public schools. A new report from the Center on Reinventing Public Education, however, asserts that charter schools’ special education rates are much closer to those of district public schools than is described by these other recent reports.  National Education Policy Center

Editorial: Race to the Bottom

An investigation by The Times found that state and local governments are giving out $80 billion a year in tax breaks and other subsidies in a foolhardy, shortsighted race to attract companies. That money could go a long way to improving education, transportation and other public services that would have a far better shot at promoting real economic growth.  New York Times

News

FL: Fla. prison medical outsourcing mostly rejected

A judge on Tuesday blocked plans to privatize health care services in three of Florida’s four prison system regions, but the state said it would appeal. Circuit Judge John Cooper ruled that funding for such major policy changes must be approved by the full Legislature rather than a panel of just 14 lawmakers.  San Francisco Chronicle

FL: Federal government has 90 days to decide if Florida can privatize Medicaid

…A “90-day clock” was triggered in late November, meaning the federal government has to make a decision by the end of February on one portion of the managed care proposal pertaining to senior citizens requiring long-term care. The HHS department still hasn’t indicated when it will rule on the wider proposal to move nearly all of Medicaid patients to managed care, the News Service of Florida said. The decision to convert Medicaid to a managed care system was a controversial one. Miami Herald

IL: Will public works decisions be made in private?

They were appointed last summer to be the gatekeepers in Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s program to build public works projects with billions of dollars in private investment…. But as the board moves closer to being asked to sign off on plans to improve the city’s infrastructure with private dollars, questions still remain about how transparent and open to the public those decisions will be. At the crux of the debate is Emanuel’s insistence that the board be a nonprofit organization and not a city agency. The board is applying for federal approval to become what’s known as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization under Internal Revenue Service rules. The ramifications for the public have less to do with federal tax laws than with how the board figures in Emanuel’s selection of private business partners hoping to see a healthy profit on an investment in Chicago government.  Chicago Tribune

MD: Montgomery official wants state to halve ICC tolls

County Councilmember Phil Andrews, a long-time ICC opponent, said in a letter Monday to the MdTA that the 18-mile, all-electronic toll road between Gaithersburg and Interstate 95 has had little effect on relieving congestion on other roads since pening one year ago. An end-to-end ride during rush hour costs $4 for a car. “MdTA foolishly assumed ‘price was no object’ for the general public when it set its toll rates for the ICC,” Andrews wrote. “Many people, whose tax dollars helped [pay] for this road, are unable to afford the tolls or are deterred by the high tolls.” Baltimore Sun

CA: Final tally shows Fresno County privatization ballot measure fails

The effort to fast-track the privatization of public services in Fresno County has failed. Supporters of the privatization initiative, Measure O — including its author, Supervisor Debbie Poochigian — had been holding out hope that the initiative’s narrow defeat on Election Day would be reversed by the thousands of absentee ballots counted since. But the final vote count released Tuesday shows the countywide measure losing 51% to 49%. Tuesday was the state deadline to finalize election results.  Fresno Bee

OpEd: The People’s Beach

By increasing the value of shoreline property and encouraging rampant development, the trend toward privatizing formerly public space has contributed in no small measure to the damage storms like Hurricane Sandy inflict. Tidal lands that soaked up floodwaters were drained and developed. Jetties, bulkheads and sea walls were erected, hastening erosion. And sand dunes — which block rising waters but also profitable ocean views — were bulldozed.   New York Times

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LA: Judge Deals a Setback to Louisiana’s Voucher Program

Judge Timothy Kelley of State District Court ruled that the way in which the state finances its new voucher program violates the state Constitution, as it relies on money intended in “plain and unambiguous” terms solely for public schools. In a statement, Governor Jindal called the decision “wrongheaded and a travesty for parents across Louisiana” and vowed to appeal. But it was not the crippling setback it could have been.  New York Times

CA: California Court of Appeal Shoots Down Traffic Camera Company

The second highest court in California on Thursday issued an order summarily denying a traffic camera company’s attempt to overturn election results from last month. American Traffic Solutions (ATS) was upset when 15,682 voters approved Measure N, requiring city officials to remove red light cameras once it is certified in the next two weeks.  TheNewspaper

TX: Toll roads calling it quits on cash

You won’t find yourself digging around for change in the car much longer.  Starting January 1, 2013, toll ways in Central Texas will no longer accept cash as payment. Cash only lanes will be a thing of the past. For some drivers, not having the option isn’t a welcome change. “It’s just real inconvenient,” says Zach Fletcher,  “I always have change in my car, so it’s real inconvenient for me, so I don’t really like it.” Purchasing a TxTag account isn’t appealing to some drivers. “Now we’ve got to go with the TxTag and the credit card and all that stuff,” says Marvin Massingill. KXAN.com

MS: Hinds Looks at Jail Privatization

After a series of high-profile incidents at Hinds County’s Raymond Detention Center that sometimes bordered on comical, the county will look at the possibility of privatizing some or all of the jail’s operations.  Jackson Free Press

PA: Pa. House Democratic lawmakers blast away at Gov. Tom Corbett’s lottery House Democratic leaders teamed up on Monday to blast Gov. Tom Corbett and his exploration of the idea of outsourcing management of the Pennsylvania Lottery to a foreign corporation. Calling the administration’s pursuit of this potential deal “too secretive,” House DemocraticHouse Democratic Leader Frank Dermody says Gov. Tom Corbett’s consideration of privatizing the Pennsylvania Lottery “stinks.”

PennLive

OH: Budget Hearing Raises Questions About Parking Privatization

Cincinnati City Council members today focused a lot of attention on a contentious plan to lease city parking assets during a Monday committee presentation on the 2013 budget. Cincinnati CityBeat

NE: UHC review committee recommends moving forward with health service privatization

The University Health Center Request For Proposal (RFP) Evaluation Committee has recommended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln go forward with plans for Bryan Health to construct and operate a new health center. “The next step would be for the university to go into negotiations with Bryan Health and iron out the details to see if a contract could be resolved of the negotiations,” said UHC director Dr. James Guest, who was one of the committee members. Daily Nebraskan

T.S.A. Skips a Hearing on Terminating the T.S.A.

The director of the Transportation Security Administration, John S. Pistole, had declined to testify before this particular subcommittee on two previous occasions, despite angry criticism from some members who are longtime agency critics…. On the other hand, the hearing last Thursday seemed to have an agenda, which was that the T.S.A. should be replaced by private security companies — you know, like the ones that were accused of hiring poorly trained, underpaid screeners at airports before Sept. 11 brought a somewhat more intense focus to checkpoint security.  New York Times

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CA:  Port of Los Angeles clerical workers strike over outsourcing

Striking workers shut down the largest terminal at the Port of Los Angeles for a second day Wednesday, and the job action later widened to close three terminals at the Port of Long Beach, threatening to paralyze the nation’s busiest port complex. About 70 clerical workers struck the APM Terminals operations on Pier 400 at Port of Los Angeles on Tuesday, raising the ante in a 2-year-old contract battle over union claims that management has been outsourcing well-paid jobs out of state and overseas.   The Republic

RI: AFL-CIO to make Pawtucket a ‘battleground’ city

The Rhode Island AFL-CIO is planning a major offensive against efforts to privatize municipal departments across the state, and Pawtucket is expected to be the launching point. Valley Breeze

PA: Convention board hires consultant to explore privatizing

The board of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority has awarded a consulting-services contract to Public Financial Management Inc., of Philadelphia, to assist in reviewing responses to privatize certain functions of the center. Philadelphia Inquirer

FL: Judge hearing Fla. prison privatization challenge

A judge is hearing another challenge to plans for privatizing health care services in Florida’s prisons. Circuit Judge John Cooper is conducting the hearing in Tallahassee on whether a legislative budget panel exceeded its authority by approving the $58 million proposal. Lawyers for two unions representing about 3,000 nurses and other prison health care employees, who stand to lose their jobs, contend only the full Legislature can approve such a significant policy change. San Francisco Chronicle

FL: In outreach to large landowners, Gov. Rick Scott finds support for toll road

To make way for a proposed network of sprawling toll roads, Florida transportation officials are considering reserving tracts of remote timberlands, cattle ranches and phosphate mines from some of the state’s largest landowners. Tampabay.com

Jeb Bush, with cash and clout, pushes contentious school reforms

But a close examination raises questions about the depth and durability of the gains in Florida. After the dramatic jump of the Bush years, Florida test scores edged up in 2009 and then dropped, with low-income students falling further behind. State data shows huge numbers of high school graduates still needing remedial help in math and reading. And some of the policies Bush now pushes, such as vouchers and mandatory online classes, have no clear links to the test-score bump in Florida. Bush has been particularly vigorous about promoting online education, urging states to adopt policies written with input from companies that stand to profit from expanded cyber-schooling. Many of those companies also donate to Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education, which has raised $19 million in recent years to promote his agenda nationwide.  Reuters