March 4, 2005

Headlines
1. PA: Rendell’s plan to lease turnpike unwise, study says
2. Texans ponder where superhighway might take them
3. GAO disputes savings reports
4. NC: Rife with abuse
5. Clinton supports bill to ban use of State Dept private security contractors
6. Louisiana: Jindal may back private tuition tax breaksÂ

News Summaries
1. PA: Rendell’s plan to lease turnpike unwise, study says
A study done for state House Democrats has concluded that it is unwise
to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike to a private operator, as Gov.
Rendell hopes to do, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Instead, the study supported the legislature’s move to keep the
Turnpike Commission, raise tolls on the turnpike, and introduce tolls
on I-80. The study, by three experts from Pennsylvania State and
Harvard Universities, is to be formally released today in Harrisburg.

2. Texans ponder where superhighway might take them
The Boston Globe has an article about the battle over the so-called
NAFTA Superhighway. Texas officials say the superhighway is necessary
to relieve chronic road congestion. Local opponents say it will cut
through their ranches and destroy the area’s ecology. And politicians
like US Representative Ron Paul, Republican of Texas, and national
commentators like CNN’s Lou Dobbs have condemned it as a betrayal
of American interests – the very road by which American jobs will
move out of the country.

3. GAO disputes savings reports
The Bush administration’s competitive-sourcing policy took a hard smack
from the Government Accountability Office less than three weeks after
Office of Management and Budget officials publicized one agency’s
success story about saving an estimated $100 million a year from that
initiative, according to Federal Computer Week. The Agriculture Department’s
Forest Service reported savings of $38 million from competitive sourcing
based on three public/private job competitions between fiscal 2004 and 2006.
However, the agency spent an estimated $40 million on transition costs in
2005 and 2006 to restructure its information technology infrastructure for
one of the competitions. That cost is $5 million more than the $35 million in
savings that the agency reported to Congress, according to a GAO report.

4. NC: Rife with abuse
The News & Observer says that the abuse of patients at the state’s psychiatric
hospitals is yet another sign that mental health ‘reform’ has far to go. "Accounts
and evidence of abuse (and worse) in the final two segments of The
N&O’s "Mental Disorder" series were painful to behold. They told of
beatings of patients in North Carolina’s state mental hospitals, of workers hired
despite long criminal records, of suspicious deaths unreported to the state, even
though a 2001 law requires such reporting. In a system that has "privatized"
much local care to near-extinction, there’s little effective community-based
treatment. The hospitals have to be an option."

5. Clinton supports bill to ban use of State Dept private security contractors
Sen. Hillary Clinton has signed on as the first co-sponsor of a bill
that would ban the use of all State Department private security
contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill could create a wedge
issue with her chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination,
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who does not support the measure, reports
Government Executive
. Last week, Clinton, D-N.Y., offered her support
to the Stop Outsourcing Security Act, which was introduced last November
by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. An identical House version of the bill, sponsored by
Rep. Janice Schakowsky, D-Ill., was introduced in 2007 and has 23 co-sponsors.

6. Louisiana: Jindal may back private tuition tax breaks
In a move certain to spark a philosophical debate over spending on
public education, Gov. Bobby Jindal will ask lawmakers to consider tax
breaks for families that pay private school tuition, according to a
state senator who has championed such benefits in recent years, reports
The Times Picayune.