Source: Steve Hutkins, In These Times, January 25, 2012

This piece originally appeared at Save the Post Office.

The plans for reforming the Postal Service are no secret. Its leaders have detailed them clearly in white papers, speeches and appearances before Congressional committees: eliminate the layoff protections in union contracts, cut the career workforce by nearly half while tripling the number of non-career workers, reduce service standards for first-class mail, do away with Saturday delivery, give management control of workers' benefit plans, consolidate away over 250 processing plants and close 15,000 post offices.

What we don't see very often are the players making this all happen. We assume the Postmaster General is making the decisions, but he is merely the front man.

Behind him are the USPS Board of Governors, the mail industry stakeholders and the corporate class as a whole. Cutting the workforce, closing post offices and plants and moving toward privatization through outsourcing and divestiture of assets -- these are all part of an effort to shape the postal system in ways that serve the interests of an elite business class rather than the good of the country as a whole. The free-market ideology and greed for profits that drove efforts to undo the New Deal are driving the "postal reform" movement today.

Source: Cody Mason, The Sentencing Project, January 2012

From the press release:
Private prisons held over 128,000 prisoners in 2010, representing an 80 percent increase since 1999. This growth has been built on the claim that private prisons can operate at a lower cost than publicly operated facilities, while still providing the same levels of service. Private prison companies have failed to fulfill this promise, according to the new report, Too Good to be True: Private Prisons in America.

30 states and the federal government had some level of prison privatization in 2010. The amount of privately held state prisoners increased by 40 percent between 1999 and 2010, while the number of federal inmates held privately increased by 784 percent. In contrast, the total prison population experienced a 17 percent increase during this period. Private prison companies, such as Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group, Inc. spend millions of dollars each year in lobbying and campaign contributions to continue this trend.

Source: Pete Donohue, New York Daily News, January 25, 2012

...The Fire Department has used the communication system since 2009, but the NYPD decided to remain offline after tests revealed hiccups like signal interference and dead spots. To fix the glitches, the MTA's NYC Transit division spent $36 million to replace old antennae cable and make other adjustments...The MTA awarded a contract to build the system to a joint venture of E.A. Technologies and Petrocelli Electric in 2000. It was installed in 2006, about two years behind schedule. The original contract was for $140 million but grew to $160 million.
See also:
Transit cops getting subwalkie-talkies
Source: Sally Goldenberg and Josh Margolin, New York Post, January 26, 2012

Source: Tolu Olorunnipa, Miami Herald, Naked Politics Blog, January 23, 2012

Back in 1988, Florida legislators passed a law that would allow sports stadiums to collect about $2 million per year from the government to build new shiny stadiums that would increase economic investment and improve the quality of life.

Tucked into the statutes is an obscure homeless shelter provision...The law states that sports teams that accept taxpayer dollars to build facilities must house the homeless on off-nights, and lawmakers have brought it back from the dead in a pair of bills gaining steam this legislative session.

Senate Bill 816, which would make teams and stadium owners return millions of taxpayer dollars if they can't prove that they've been operating as a haven for the homeless on non-event nights, passed its first committee in the Senate on Monday with a unanimous vote...

Source: Chris Thomas, News 12, January 25, 2012

Commissioners recently all but rubber stamped a plan to privatize Augusta's Human Resources and payroll department....We got our hands on two pages of supposed issues with ADP that were compiled by the city administrator's office....The list makes mention of workers dropped from health care coverage.

Source: Ronda Kaysen, New York Times, January 24, 2012

With state budgets tight and demand for a college education at a high point, public universities across the country are increasingly turning to the private sector to build and finance on-campus dormitories....Although proponents of private partnerships point to lower costs for construction and operation, those savings are not necessarily passed on to students. A room at the Heights, for example, costs about $1,000 more a semester than a room in Montclair State's other dorms....

...Public universities that have entered into or are considering such partnerships include the University of California, Irvine; Arizona State; Portland State; the University of Kentucky; and Montclair State in New Jersey...Capstone developed the Heights, enlisting the Provident Resources Group, a nonprofit organization, to finance the $211 million project with tax-exempt bonds issued by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority....Portland State University in Oregon is building a 16-story residence hall in a public-private partnership with American Campus Communities.

Source: Eleanor Yang Su, California Watch, January 19, 2012

School foundations and PTAs used to raise money for the extras - high-tech projectors and special field trips. But these days, private donations to schools have grown dramatically and are being used to prevent teacher layoffs, keep libraries open, and save music and foreign-language classes....While some see opportunity with the donations, others are troubled by an increasing reliance on private donors for day-to-day operations. They also raise concerns about a growing gap between schools with well-heeled parent groups and those without.