All over the country, cash-strapped state and local governments have handed over control of critical public services and assets to corporations backed by Wall Street banks that promise to handle them better, faster and cheaper. Unfortunately for taxpayers, not only has outsourcing these services failed to keep this promise, but too often it undermines transparency, accountability, shared prosperity and competition, underpinnings of democracy itself.
Atlantans have seen this firsthand in the form of the agreement that turned water services over to French-owned United Water. After being plagued by scandal, brown water, “boil only” alerts and unacceptably poor performance, the city terminated the agreement just four years into a 20-year contract.
Outsourcing disasters like this mean taxpayers have very little say over how tax dollars are spent and no say on actions taken by private companies that control public services. Outsourcing means taxpayers cannot vote out executives who make decisions that hurt public health and safety. Outsourcing means taxpayers are contractually stuck with a monopoly run by a single corporation and contracts that often last decades. And outsourcing too often means a race to the bottom for the local economy, as wages and benefits fall while corporate profits rise.
That’s why In The Public Interest supports proposals from state Reps. David Wilkerson, D-Austell; Dewey McClain, D-Lawrenceville; Scott Holcomb, D-Atlanta; Brian Prince, D-Augusta; James Beverly, D-Macon; and Wayne Howard, D-Augusta. The measures — House Bills 932 (“Contract Cancellation”), 936 (“Open Records”) and 941 (“Taxpayers First”) — will rein in predatory contracting of government services in Georgia.
This legislation, based partly on practices Public Interest developed in our Taxpayer Empowerment Agenda, helps taxpayers reclaim control of communities and makes sure tax dollars are invested right here at home, not sent away to pad some giant corporation’s profits or to Wall Street bank accounts. It is a common-sense agenda we can all agree on.
These proposals would:
- Require any company paid with tax dollars to open its books and meetings to the public, just as government does.
- Ensure every contract includes language that allows government to cancel the contract in a timely manner if the company doesn't live up to its promises of quality and cost savings.
- Require a thorough cost analysis of all bids and guarantee taxpayers a minimum 10 percent savings before any service is privatized.
Fortunately, Georgia taxpayers are not the only ones fighting to reclaim control of their vital public services. Similar measures are to be introduced in states as diverse as Vermont, Kansas and California.
In an era of outsourcing, it is essential that lawmakers remain watchdogs for the public interest. Elected leaders should sign on to support the Taxpayer Empowerment Agenda. The lawmakers championing these proposals stand on the side of taxpayers and plain common sense.
Donald Cohen is executive director of In the Public Interest, a national resource center on outsourcing public services and responsible contracting.
