What’s New in Local Government Privatization?

Commentary

What’s New in Local Government Privatization?

Today Reason Foundation released the Local Government Privatization section of its Annual Privatization Report 2014, offering an overview of the latest on privatization and public-private partnerships in local government over the past year.

Topics discussed in this year’s edition include:

  • A municipal fiscal review and outlook that finds that despite some slight economic improvement over the past year, local governments continue to struggle with ongoing fiscal challenges and continued budget pressures in the near and long term that are likely to drive policymakers toward greater fiscal restraint and the pursuit of new ways to control costs and increase government efficiency.
  • An analysis of Detroit’s bankruptcy plan of adjustment, which offers a mixed bag on outsourcing and asset privatization.
  • A review of Pontiac, Michigan’s transformation into a contract city under emergency manager control.
  • An update on public-private partnerships for government-owned parking assets, including the steadily increasing revenues to the city in Indianapolis after privatization, a look back at the first year of privatized parking at Ohio State University, and the latest on Chicago’s controversial parking meter concession.
  • An update on public-private partnerships in solid waste and recycling, including Detroit’s privatization of residential solid waste and recycling services.
  • A review of the latest developments in water and wastewater public-private partnerships, including groundbreaking federal legislation that will encourage greater private investment in municipal water/wastewater infrastructure and the latest on privatization initiatives in Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami-Dade County, St. Louis and more.
  • A review of the latest news in the privatization of municipal golf operations, including new contracts in Phoenix, Tucson, St. Paul and more.
  • An update on efforts to privatize the operation of municipal zoos and animal shelters.
  • A state-by-state review of numerous other local privatization initiatives.

The full Local Government Privatization section is available here, and the full Annual Privatization Report 2014 is available here.