MAIN ARTICLES
New Medi-Cal Amendment Ensures More Expensive Ambulance Rides
A recently passed amendment to California’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, is set to raise the average cost of an ambulance ride from about $120 per trip to over $1,000 per trip without justification. Local California fire departments were a large advocate for the change, which they seem to see as a potential financial windfall if they are can shift emergency medical services (EMS) to be under the purview of their departments. In a new article in the Orange County Register, Reason Foundation’s Austill Stuart explains why the Medi-Cal amendment will hurt taxpayers and how it could potentially disrupt EMS services across California.
Jackson’s Water System Problems Need Long-Term Commitments
The residents of Jackson, Mississippi, had already been without drinkable water for weeks when the city’s water and sewer systems failed amid major flooding last month. While the boil advisory has been lifted and service has mostly returned, Jackson’s water infrastructure problems remain, including malfunctioning equipment in the city’s treatment facilities and a lack of personnel capable of operating and maintaining the equipment itself, according to a recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency inspection report. The city has deep financial problems, too. Jackson’s bond rating is barely investment grade, and it has lost over 14% of its residents over the last 10 years. The situation is so bad that a bipartisan mix of officials agree that an entity other than Jackson should operate the city’s water systems, with Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves suggesting privatization as an option. In a new article, Reason Foundation’s Austill Stuart examines the depths of Jackson’s water problems, why the city is likely going to require private capital and solutions to address them, and how to best protect taxpayers.
Long Overdue Reforms to the FDA Regulation of New Drugs Could Save Lives
“There are few areas of public policy where the results have been as diametrically opposed to the intentions as pharmaceutical regulation in the United States,” writes Reason Foundation’s Managing Director of Drug Policy Geoffrey Lawrence in a recently released policy brief on how to reform the Food and Drug Administration. The paper includes recommendations on how to reform the FDA, streamline the drug approval process, use pharmaceuticals approved by the European Union, reduce prescription drug costs, and help achieve the broad public goal of improving the lives and health of all Americans.
Uneven Progress Toward Transparent and Machine-Readable Financial Reporting In Florida
The Florida Division of Auditing and Accounting released a business reporting language taxonomy that local governments can use to release their financial reports digitally. A 2018 Florida House Bill mandated XBRL as a necessary common standard. But after the bill’s passage, the Government Finance Officers Association said it “opposes efforts to mandate the use of specific technologies by state and local governments for financial reporting and disclosure.” In a recent commentary, Senior Policy Analyst Marc Joffe explains why XBRL is the best fit for financial reporting by local governments and how it can help provide taxpayers and policymakers with data in a consistent and usable manner to increase transparency and accountability.
Keep Congress Away from College Football
While college football players can now earn money from their name, image, and likeness (NIL), the National Collegiate Athletic Association continues to cling to the “amateur” status of players. This long-outdated idea has reached the point of being a fairy tale, allowing universities and their athletic departments to rake in billions of dollars annually in revenue, as Reason Foundation Director of Education Reform Aaron Garth Smith describes in a recent commentary. The NCAA knows its rules may be on shaky legal grounds, which is why it is lobbying Congress for a federal policy that would preserve the NCAA’s strong grip while keeping players from reaching their full market potential.
NEWS & NOTES
STATE GOVERNMENT
Puerto Rico Chooses Partner for Cruise Ports Public-Private Partnership: In August, the Puerto Rico Ports Authority (PRPA) selected Global Ports Holdings as its partner for a 30-year concession of the San Juan Cruise Port. The deal includes an initial $75 million payment to the PRPA and $350 million in capital investments in the port by the company to improve services and expand capacity.
Hawaii Modifies Resort RFP Action to Exclude Sale: Earlier this month, the Hawaii Board of Land and Natural Resources modified an action it made in July to disallow a sale of state properties, opting instead for a lease. The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) wants to tear down or renovate a waterfront hotel and a nearby condo building, but funds are not available for the project or for an environmental assessment and impact statement (EIS). Therefore, a long-term lease is seen as the only way to attract developers to fund both the EIS and the renovation work. DLRN staff canceled a previous request for qualifications/proposals process for the project last year after it couldn’t fully verify the financials of its preferred proponent.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Los Angeles Jail Diversion Program Shows Promising Results: The Rand Corporation recently released a report evaluating the early results of the Los Angeles County “Just in Reach Pay For Success” (JIR PFS) program, which provides permanent supportive housing (PSH) for individuals eligible for diversion from jail. In early results, participants spent an average of 24 fewer days in jail compared to a control group. The Los Angeles County Department of Corrections oversees the program, which was originally started in 2017 and is funded by $10 million from the Conrad Hilton Foundation and United Healthcare. Success payments are based on maintaining a 92% and 90% PSH retention rate after six- and 12-month intervals, respectively, and a 42% jail avoidance rate for participants over two years.
Miami-Dade Releases $10 Billion Downtown Redevelopment RFP: Miami-Dade County released a request for proposals in August for a $10 billion downtown redevelopment project. The county is providing 17 acres of land adjacent to most of the county government’s offices. It hopes to find partners to develop potentially 17-to-24 million square feet in a combination of housing, offices, retail, parking, a transit terminal, and a minimum of 2.5 acres of green spaces. The chosen developer for the project would pay the county to lease the land for up to 99 years.
Annapolis Closes on Parking and City Dock P3: Earlier this month, the city of Annapolis and the Maryland Economic Development Corporation reached financial close with Annapolis Mobility and Resilience Partners on a $70 million public-private partnership that includes renovations to a downtown parking garage and the Annapolis City Dock. The parking improvements will be procured as a design-build-finance-operate-maintain project. For the dock, the work will be design-build-finance and includes a raised seawall and storm surge barriers as well as green spaces to capture stormwater.
Pittsburgh Announces Micro-mobility Pilot: The city of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, and mobility services provider Spin announced the creation of a pilot program to provide micro-mobility solutions to low-income workers. The pilot program will provide 50 selected individuals free access to public transit, bikes, scooters, and zip cars in a year-long test. This program is intended to track socioeconomic progress and will compare results to a 50-person control group evaluated by Carnegie Mellon. The Richard King Mellon Foundation is providing $200,000 for the funding alongside $50,000 from Spin.
Baltimore Starts Guaranteed Income Pilot Program: In August, Baltimore revealed it had started processing payments to individuals in its Baltimore Young Families Success Fund. A group of 200 individuals is scheduled to receive monthly cash payments of $1,000 for two years in exchange for participating in interviews and answering surveys about their experiences. Local nonprofit the CASH Campaign of Maryland and personal finance portal Steady will provide operational support for the city’s project, which will be evaluated by Johns Hopkins and is being funded by $4.8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds as well as grants from private donors.
New Jersey Town Forced to Outsource Animal Control After Resignations: Last month, two animal control officers in Stafford Township, New Jersey, resigned, leading the town to temporarily outsource the town’s animal control services to A-Academy. The contract, which Mayor Greg Myhre made clear is an “emergency decision,” will last until the end of the year.
QUOTABLE QUOTES
“The Just in Reach Pay for Success program appears to significantly reduce participants’ use of many county services…The program may provide a feasible alternative—from a cost perspective—for addressing homelessness among individuals with chronic health conditions involved with the justice system in Los Angeles County.”
—Sarah B. Hunter, lead author of a Rand Corporation Report about Los Angeles County’s “Just in Reach” jail diversion program, in a press release.