July 18, 2012

Headlines
Report: US states’ financial woes eroding services
CBO Examines Toll Road Bank
FL: Florida DOC to go ahead with prison privatization plan
OH: Audience pan Gov. John Kasich’s plan to lease Ohio Turnpike
The Army Occupying America’s Public Schools – opinion

Report: US states’ financial woes eroding services
U.S. states face long-term budget burdens that are already limiting their ability to pay for basic services such as law enforcement, local schools and transportation, a report released Tuesday said…Those challenges are made worse by a lack of planning by many states and the repeated use of one-time accounting gimmicks to cut costs, the report added. The report was issued by the State Budget Crisis Task Force, a non-profit co-chaired by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and former New York Lieutenant Governor Richard Ravitch. It focused on six states that encompass about a third of the U.S. population: California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Texas, and Virginia…Increased spending on health care and pensions are crowding out other funding. Many states have already cut spending on public universities and infrastructure such as roads and public transit, Ravitch said at a press conference Tuesday…Diminished aid from states has pushed up tuition. Concerns are rising that some leading public universities, such as the universities of Michigan and Virginia, “are moving toward de facto privatization with high fees that effectively exclude many highly qualified lower income students,” the report said. AP

CBO Examines Toll Road Bank
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Thursday released a report on the strengths and weaknesses of the proposal to create a national infrastructure bank. The bank idea has grown increasingly popular among transportation officials and politicians because it allows them to raise more money from motorists to fund transportation projects. CBO calculated that annual spending on highways, transit and passenger rail has averaged $50 billion at the federal level and $150 billion at the state and local level. Private railroads also spend $12 billion on their infrastructure. Using the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) wish list of existing projects, another $83 billion more could be spent per year. To create more funding for such projects, the infrastructure bank would allow federal government officials decide which local projects should receive a taxpayer-subsidized loan or loan guarantee. The loans would be repaid from a dedicated revenue stream, which is why the infrastructure bank is only likely to be used to provide profit for the companies that construct and operate toll roads. The Newspaper.com

FL: Florida DOC to go ahead with prison privatization plan
The Florida Department of Corrections said Tuesday it will move ahead with plans to privatize all health care for the nation’s third-largest prison system, even after a stalemate in court and the expiration of legislative budget language that authorized the sweeping change…The Legislature last year ordered the agency to privatize all health care as a money-saving move by inserting budget language known as proviso and requiring a savings of at least 7 percent over 2010 costs. In April, Tucker announced a decision to tentatively award contracts to Corizon Health in most of the state and Wexford Health Sources in South Florida. Two unions filed a lawsuit. A state judge in Tallahassee did not rule in the case, and on June 30 the fiscal year expired. The proposal also required approval by the Legislative Budget Commission, which never took action on the outsourcing. However, attorneys for the state contend that privatization can be done by the agency without a legislative mandate. Tampa Bay Times

OH: Audience pan Gov. John Kasich’s plan to lease Ohio Turnpike
If the first public hearing on the issue of leasing the Ohio Turnpike is any indication of how people feel, Gov. John Kasich won’t like the outcome. Of the 77 people in attendance Tuesday, 75 raised their hands to say they are against the governor’s idea of privatizing the 241-mile toll road that spans Ohio from Indiana to Pennsylvania — and many made strong statements for keeping the status quo. The vast majority in attendance at the Lorain County Transportation and Community Center agreed with the analysis of the Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study that concluded the turnpike is an efficiently run, revenue-producing asset and, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Ernie Peto of Olmsted Falls said leasing the turnpike would be like pawning it. “Once you pawn a valuable watch and then spend the money, what do you have left?” he said. “We can’t give away this asset.” The Plain Dealer

The Army Occupying America’s Public Schools – opinion
When a nation is invaded by an occupying army, there are multiple responses from those whose communities have been occupied. Some resist openly, at great risk; some decide to collaborate; others grimly go about their business in sullen compliance; still others decide to feign compliance, but take their resistance underground. Such would be a good description of the varied resistance to the corporate takeover of American schools, which has many of the elements of a foreign invasion. Those who have coordinated the campaign of privatization, testing. and union busting that has swept through America’s public schools — Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Arne Duncan, Michael Bloomberg, and the like, none of whom have a background in teaching — have used the shock and awe tactics employed by invading armies to overwhelm opposition. Beyond Chron