News
PA: Liquor privatization advocate worried over slow motion senate. A key figure in the effort to privatize the state liquor stores said Wednesday he is less bullish that a privatization plan will be enacted before the legislature takes it’s summer break. Patriot-News
PA: Pennsylvania senators hear debate on liquor privatization. For supporters of privatizing the Pennsylvania liquor system, the virtues of leaving alcohol sales to business are a rallying cry. But for the taverns and beer distributors, groceries and wineries already in the market, the movement to overhaul regulations that have shaped their business models are cause for industry-specific opportunity and concern. Pittsburgh Post Gazette
LA: La. Hospital Privitization Costs Still Foggy After Auditor’s Report. Lawmakers that have fought the Administration for more power in the process of privatizing the state’s charity hospitals may get their wish as they consider funding for the cost of laying off hospital workers. WWNO
NJ: NJ TO STUDY PRIVATIZING MOTOR VEHICLE INSPECTIONS. After running out this weekend, the contract for Parsons Corporation to operate the state-run vehicle inspection stations in New Jersey has been extended for three years. Officials are studying whether to privatize the inspection system. New Jersey drivers now have the choice of paying a private garage to do an emissions inspection or having it done without charge at a state facility. The $20 per vehicle cost for Parsons to do the job is funded by the motor vehicle fees that drivers pay. WBGO News
NY: LIPA privatization moves closer. New Jersey’s Public Service Enterprise Group Inc., would effectively take control of the Long Island Power Authority under legislation proposed Monday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Crain’s New York Business
MI: Running prisons for profit so wrong, it’s almost criminal. Privatization might sound, in theory, like the way to bring Michigan’s prison costs under control. But because the desired outcomes in the corrections system are about more than bottom-line dollar analyses, privatization is just not likely to deliver. Detroit Free Press