News
MI: Power grab. Across Michigan, emergency managers installed by the state are using sweeping powers to privatize public services, lay off city employees, and weaken public sector unions with little standing in their way. MSNBC
LA: Hospital privatization could impact thousands of state employees. Much of the budget savings associated with the Jindal administration’s privatization of LSU public hospitals comes from a $400 million reduction in funding for employee pay and benefits as hospital workers lose their state jobs across south Louisiana. The Advocate
NJ: NJ Legislature wants say in privatizing lottery. The state Treasury Department is looking to hand over sales and marketing to a private company this year. The state would keep ownership of the lottery and would try to find work for 150 lottery workers under the new arrangement. New Jersey has the eighth largest state lottery in the country. San Francisco Chronicle
NJ: Allendale moving on water contract. The council plans to vote today on a draft contract that would privatize the operation of its water system. The contract, if approved at today’s special meeting, would go before the public at the council’s March 28 meeting. NorthJersey.com
NY: Yonkers report: Public-private schools partnership ‘doable’. Under the model, a consortium of private companies would agree to build, renovate and operate city-owned schools for a given period in exchange for a set monthly fee that would be paid with city and state dollars. The school system would be the first in the nation to use this method to renovate and rebuild school buildings. The Journal News
PA: State lawmakers favor moderization over privatization of liquor stores. Mahoney, secretary of the Liquor Control Board, said that modernization is a better course for the state, rather than losing the estimated $80 million annual revenue stream now funneled to the general fund to privatization. Uniontown Herald Standard
PA: Plans to privatize psych jobs attacked. A state workers union is criticizing a move by the Corbett administration to look at privatizing psychological services at the state’s 27 correctional institutions and centers. “To privatize these services to a for-profit company that will look at numbers and not individuals is not only foolish but puts every citizen in the commonwealth at risk,” Kathy Jellison, the president of the Service Employees International Union, said in a release. Altoona Mirror
IL: CTA hearing sets sights on switch to Ventra card. The hearing seeking public feedback on the new Ventra fare card is required by law because of the new fees introduced in the open fare system, which is tentatively set to launch this summer, officials said. The hearing will begin at 6 p.m. at CTA headquarters, 567 W. Lake St., Chicago. The changes are the result of a $454 million contract the CTA awarded to Cubic Transportation Systems in November 2011 to begin privatizing the fare-collection process. Chicago Tribune
TX: City of Dallas mulls privatizing police auto pound in West Dallas. Efforts to privatize the pound (and sell its 50 acres) eventually stalled, but yesterday on its inscrutable bids website the city said it’s willing to give the proposal another spin. Dallas Morning News
5 Ways Privatization Is Poisoning America. The free-market capitalism that drives our economy is a doctrine of individuals pursuing profit. Nothing else matters . . . With privatization of the common good we risk losing both our heritage and our humanness. OpEdNews