News
PA: Corbett officials to attend hearing on privatizing lottery
Corbett administration officials are willing to appear before a Senate Finance Committee hearing on a proposal to hire a private company to manage the $3.5 billion Pennsylvania Lottery. A spokeswoman for Gov. Tom Corbett’s Department of Revenue said Thursday that officials are happy to answer questions in any format. The hearing date was set for Jan. 14. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
PA: Corbett pushes for extension on Lottery privatization deadline
The Corbett administration says it’s trying to push a year-end deadline back by two or three weeks to decide whether to lease the operations of the Pennsylvania Lottery to a private company. The main reason the commonwealth is pushing for more time has to do with the union that represents some of the Lottery’s employees. The union is allowed to make its own counteroffer to the private bid on the Lottery, and it just got an extension, making its offer due in early January. Newsworks
CA: Trash Privatization Opponents Launch Petition
Although the Fresno City Council voted in favor of privatizing residential trash service last week, it’s not a done deal yet. Opponents of privatization of city residential trash service are hitting the streets and are going door to door hoping that a petition drive will lead to a vote by the people of Fresno on the issue. Proponents of the petition drive say they don’t want the Mayor and the City Council alone to make the decision. KMJ Now
Helium prices soar as supplies shrink
Texas is home to the country’s only Federal Helium Reserve, a site outside Amarillo where more than one-third of the world’s helium supply is produced, and the federal government has worked for years to deplete that supply. Congress more than 15 years ago created a law requiring reserve officials to sell off their helium — therefore privatizing the helium industry — by 2015. Now a handful of congressional leaders are trying to prevent the reserve from depleting its helium supply and closing its doors. Kansas City Star