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$ Marcia Carroll collects examples of privatization (that is,

corporatization of the peoplesƞ assets). Looking at her website,
privatizationwatch.org, will either make you laugh helplessly or make
your blood boil.
The Ơoff the wallơ giveaways at bargain-basement prices of what you
and other Americans own eclipses imagination. The latest escapes
from responsible government are called Ơpublic-private partnershipsơ
and are designed to enable the likes of Morgan Stanley and Goldman
Sachs to take over highways, meter-collecting, and public buildings in
deals that are loaded with complex tax advantages for the investors.

Here are two of her latest entries. Arizona lawmakers and Governor
Jan Brewer are moving to fill a $3.4 billion budget shortfall by selling
state-owned buildings. These include not only prisons, but also the
House and Senate buildings. Thatƞs the state legislature, fellow
Americans! Metaphor becomes reality!

The proposed sale has bipartisan support and will require a leaseback
by the buying corporation to the lawmakers with the right to
repurchase the premises within twenty years.

The Arizona Republic reports that the deal, which includes 32 state
properties, would bring in $735 million in upfront money and entail
state lease payments totaling $60-70 million a year.

ƠWe need the money,ơ State Minority Whip Linda Lopez, a Tuscon
Democrat said, adding, ƠYouƞve got to find it somewhere.ơ Well, why
not rent out the backs of the state legislators to their favorite
corporate funders? At least the public would get full disclosure of
ownership.

ƠI look at it as taking out a mortgage,ơ practical Arizona House

Majority Leader John McCormish, a Republican, told the Wall Street
Journal.
The second item comes from the Denver Post, which reports that the
foreign consortium, auto-estradas de Portugal (Brisa), operating the
toll road Northwest Parkway under a 99-year lease, objected to
improvements on a nearby public road. Under the complex leasing
contract, the company could cite the improvements as an Ơadverse
actionơ reducing toll revenue and the number of vehicles using the
parkway. This action would presumably entitle this foreign company
to compensation from Colorado taxpayers.

Last year, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell tried to push through

the legislature a complex, 75-year lease of the storied Pennsylvania
Turnpike in exchange for $12.8 billion up front. All kinds of tax
breaks and trap-door evasions filled the 686 page lease. The
Governor was prepared, for example, to agree to pay the consortium
of foreign investors if new safety measures or emergency vehicles
entered the toll road and affected the flow of traffic. Fortunately, the
legislature rebelled and blocked the deal.

The Indiana Toll Road was turned over to private companies in 2006.
The 75-year lease was for $3.8 billion, which is a little more than the
cost to repair the Woodrow Wilson bridge over the Potomac River
between Virginia and Washington, DC.

Tolls on the Indiana Toll Road have already doubled and are
expected to double again within ten years, according to the Dallas
Morning News.

Last year, Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago privatized the cityƞs

parking meters. Chicagoƞs inspector general concluded that the
meters were worth nearly twice as much to the city as the $1.15
billion that the city received under an agreement rushed through the
City Council with no civic input. A fourfold increase in meter rates this
year has driven many motorists to residential neighborhoods in
search of free parking spaces.

Indiana, a leader in outsourcing governmental functions to private

corporations, gave the servicing of the stateƞs welfare program to
IBM. According to the Indianapolis Star, error rates since
corporatization have risen 17.5 percent last November and 21.4
percent in December.

The myth that corporatization is Ơbetter, faster, and cheaperơ is

falling apart. This year, the IRS announced that it will end the use of
private tax collectors after consumer groups argued that taxpayers
were subjected to immediate payment demands by private collectors
while IRS employees would offer citizens an array of options to help
pay their tax debt.

Then there are the corporatized water systems where the companies
deliver poorer service at higher cost.

Since the 19th century, privatizing public functions has opened the
doors to kickbacks, price fixing, and collusive bidding.

New depths of corruption were reached in Pennsylvania recently

when two state judges pleaded guilty to taking bribes in return for
sending youths to privately-owned jails.

After reading report after report about the vast, relentless waste,
fraud, and abuse arising out of corporate contractors to the Pentagon
in Iraq, why should readers be surprised at this domestic scene
whereby taxpayers pay through the nose for corporations to govern
them?

So, youƞre not surprised. But are you indignant? Are you ready to
make sure the politicians hear from you in no uncertain terms, hear
from you to stop this recklessness and restore public control of the
public infrastructure under accountable government?

If the state politicos try to pull a fast one, demand public hearings
with thorough reviews of the proposed contracts or leasebacks.
Better yet, in states like Arizona or Colorado, require any such
proposals go through the open, state-wide referendum voting
process.
Corporatizations such as the above just pass on to our children the
burdens that our generation should have assumed itself to run
government within its means funded by fair taxation.