No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea, ...
-- John Donne
N.J. officials not ready to privatize state programs, services in effort to save $50M
By Matt Friedman, Statehouse Bureau, nj.com/news -- Sep 16, 2010
At an Assembly Transportation Committee hearing, Democrats grilled Transportation Commissioner James Simpson and former U.S. Rep. Dick Zimmer, who chaired Gov. Chris Christie’s task force on privatization, on the state’s progress towards meeting the $50 million goal.
[...]
Zimmer’s report, issued in July, said the state could eventually save $210 million each year by privatizing functions that include motor vehicle inspections, state park concession stands, interstate rest areas, toll collection, state office parking lots, and highway emergency service patrols.
The Toll-gate's gone, but still stands lone,
In the dip of the hill, the house of stone,
And over the roof in the branching pine
The great owl sits in the white moonshine.
An old man lives, and lonely, there,
His windows yet on the cross-roads stare, ...
-- John Drinkwater
N.J. plans to take bids to privatize Turnpike toll collection
By Bloomberg News, October 26, 2010,
TRENTON — New Jersey plans to take bids in December for private operators to take over highway-toll collection, state Transportation Commissioner James Simpson said.
The proposal would replace about 700 unionized toll collectors on the 148-mile New Jersey Turnpike. Simpson, who also is chairman of the state Turnpike Authority, said soliciting bids will help the state cut costs by winning reductions in union work rules for collectors.
[...]
Gov. Chris Christie created a task force in March to study whether the state would save money if public jobs or agencies were operated by private companies. A report released by the panel in July said the state may save as much as $43 million a year by allowing a private company to collect tolls.
Simpson said other tasks such as guard-rail repair and highway maintenance are being considered for privatization.
I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.
-- Thomas A. Edison
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
-- Dylan Thomas
Employees protest plans to privatize N.J. Turnpike, Garden State Parkway jobs in Woodbridge
By Steve Strunsky/The Star-Ledger -- Dec 15, 2010
So when he heard about the Turnpike Authority’s plan to privatize his and other jobs on the turnpike and the Garden State Parkway, DeIorio joined more than 100 union brethren to protest the proposal during the agency’s board meeting today in Woodbridge.
Transportation Commissioner James Simpson, who chairs the turnpike board, has raised the possibility of privatization as a way to cut costs. But toll takers and their supporters say privatization will result in layoffs and pay cuts for loyal workers who already agreed costly concessions under their last contract four years ago.
"We’re being asked to go to the slaughterhouse," said Franceline Ehret, president of Local 194 of the International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers, which represents most of the agency’s 800 toll takers.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
-- Dylan Thomas
Annual Privatization Report 2010
February 2011 -- Reason Foundation [Libertarian Think Tank]
Annual Privatization Report 2010:
State Government Privatization [New Jersey]
By Leonard Gilroy, Harris Kenny, Lisa Snell, Shirley Ybarra and Tyler Millhouse
Edited by Leonard Gilroy
Governor Christie -- Advancing Privatization in New Jersey
Gov. Chris Christie is embracing privatization as part of his larger efforts to streamline state government in New Jersey. Less than three months into his first term, Christie issued an executive order in March 2010 creating the New Jersey Privatization Task Force, a short-lived advisory body established to identify a comprehensive set of privatization tools and strategies the state could apply to save at least $50 million in fiscal year 2010–2011.
[...] that identified dozens of privatization opportunities that, if fully implemented, would realize cost savings and/or other benefits totaling over $210 million on an ongoing, annualized basis. It is likely that this figure may be understated, as the Task Force was unable to quantify potential savings for a number of the individual privatization recommendations, and it did not attempt to estimate the potential revenues from proposed asset divestitures, which likely total in the tens of millions.
[...]
Notably, it recommends that Governor Christie announce as an administration priority that achieving efficiency through private sector competition become standard policy for all state agencies. One of the key recommendations for doing so involves the establishment of a centralized privatization entity for the state that would fulfill functions similar to Florida’s Council on Efficient Government, a privatization “center of excellence” established in 2004 during former Gov. Jeb Bush's tenure and a key component of a strategy that ultimately helped his administration realize over $550 million in cost savings through over 130 privatization and competition initiatives.
All things will be produced in superior quantity and quality, and with greater ease, when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts, and at the right moment, without meddling with anything else.
-- Plato
Look Before You Leap Into Privatization:
Florida's Council on Efficient Government Sets a New Standard in Transparency, Due Diligence in Privatization and Contracting Decisions
Interview with Henry Garrigo, former Director, Florida Council on Efficient Government
Leonard Gilroy -- Jan 29, 2010
The Florida Efficient Government Act of 2006 created a new Council on Efficient Government in response to a major push to outsource government services and activities that began during the tenure of former Governor Jeb Bush (1999-2007). Implementation challenges that arose with several big-ticket privatization contracts prompted policymakers to create the Council as a new center of excellence in state outsourcing.
While Florida policymakers have been generally supportive of contracting out to lower costs and/or improve service delivery over the last decade, they also came to recognize a need for business cases that would evaluate proposed privatization initiatives for feasibility, cost-effectiveness and efficiency before an agency proceeds.
[...]
In 2008 alone, the Council evaluated 28 business cases with a cumulative value of over $244 million, identifying over $53 million in projected savings to the state.
[...]
Henry Garrigo, Florida Council on Efficient Government: The requirement was that agencies that went to outsource services needed to prepare a business case and have that business case submitted to the Council on Efficient Government for review.
[...]
Garrigo: What we try to do through our business case process is have the agencies come up with a clear problem statement and look at the financial implications of alternatives, and we generally require three options to be considered. We ask, "what are the financial implications, the potential savings and the public policy issues that need to be addressed?" Through that analysis you can come up with a fair evaluation of options and pick the alternative that makes the best sense for both financial and public policy reasons.
[...]
Garrigo: That's interesting that we got to that subject. Since I've been on board, we've created this mantra, this mission statement, of "Advocate, Educate and Evaluate" as our three goals and our three business lines. Coming from the private sector, this is my first foray into this public sector. This "Advocate, Educate and Evaluate" approach has really become how we try to drive our business. We're advocating for innovation, we're educating on best practices and we're evaluating for value.
The statute really helps us with our third vector -- "evaluate for value." It tells us what we need to do as far as the business case process.
Time is money.
-- Benjamin Franklin
Ohio Budget Advisory Task Force Issue Paper
The Ohio Society of CPAs
Privatization in Ohio Government
Version 1.0 -- Sept. 2010
ISSUE: Privatization in Ohio Government
[...]
Examples of Privatized Services
One privatization expert at the City University of New York identified over 200 city and county services that have been contracted out to private firms (including for-profit and non-profit).
Some of the most prevalent areas of local government privatization include:
-- Accounting, financial and legal services
-- Administrative human resource functions (e.g., payroll services, recruitment/hiring, training, benefits administration, records management, etc.)
-- Core IT infrastructure and network, Web and data processing
-- Risk management (claims processing, loss prevention, etc.)
-- Planning, building and permitting services
-- Printing and graphic design services
-- Road maintenance
-- Building/facilities financing, operations and maintenance
-- Park operations and maintenance
-- Zoo operations and maintenance
-- Stadium and convention center management
-- Library services
-- Mental health services and facilities
-- Animal shelter operations and management
-- School construction (including financing), maintenance and non-instructional services
-- Revenue-generating assets (garages, parking meters, etc.)
-- Major public infrastructure assets (roads, water/wastewater systems, airports, etc.)
Following are three main recommendations that, once enacted, New Jersey believes to be the most promising:
-- Privatization of state psychiatric hospitals [...]
-- Correctional services privatization [...]
-- Public-private partnerships to finance the construction and maintenance of new or expanded state infrastructure [...]
Beyond these three, additional privatization opportunities identified by the New Jersey Task Force include:
-- Vehicle fleet maintenance and management;
-- Performance-based highway maintenance (e.g., bundled “fence-to-fence” maintenance contracts);
-- Surplus asset divestiture;
-- Emergency service patrols on state highways and interstates;
-- State parking facilities;
-- Water;
-- Printing services;
-- Workers’ compensation claims processing;
-- State rest areas;
-- NJ Turnpike toll collection;
-- NJ Transit bus routes and vehicle maintenance;
-- Statewide vehicle emission inspections;
-- Motor vehicle titling and registration;
-- Higher education facility maintenance;
-- Child support services;
-- Hospital debt collection;
-- Golf course management; and
-- Housing and construction code enforcement.
Ask not for whom the Privatization Bell tolls, because someday soon it will probably, be tolling for you, too.
Afterall isn't that's what the Taskmaster's "Race to the Bottom" -- what it is all about?
We believe that if men have the talent to invent new machines that put men out of work, they have the talent to put those men back to work.
-- John F. Kennedy