When the Sacramento Bee publishes a sympathetic front-page news story about the city's efforts to contract out lawn maintenance and other services, we can guess that this obvious answer to the municipal budget crunch might be gaining traction. At least with contractors, there are no unfunded liabilities for employees. I worked for a contractor that handled the operations for an Air Force base years ago, and of course many of the problems found in government are found in privatized services. But at least there is a better bidding process and the chance to dump the contract and correct wayward employees and even fix poorly provided services. Unions lose power, so this is a move in the right direction. The best approach, however, is to cut back on the size of government and let the true, competitive private sector take over many of the services the public has come to depend upon.
No TrackBacks
TrackBack URL: http://www.publicsectorinc.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/286
Related Entries:
- California GOP puts ethnicity above reform
- Two excellent public pay analyses from state think tanks
- Shades of grey: Cities owe big tab for retiree health care
- Sacramento takes stock of its debt in sobering report
- Do unions give members their money's worth?
- Public sector unions and the fiscal cliff
- Michigan introduces right-to-work legislation
- NJ tells towns, school districts to start sharing costs
- Voting on the right to privatize
- What explains California's wimpy business leaders?
- Tough nerd gets no love
- USA Today blasts crazy new pension law
- The GOP and the cities
- Charter cities could lead the way to reform
- They can't be serious
Join the conversation