Recently in Laws/Legislation Category

Source: By Jackie Harrison-Martin, News Herald (MI), Tuesday, August 24, 2010

WOODHAVEN -- Custodians and maintenance workers are preparing buildings for the start of school now that a judge has blocked privatization of various services.

Wayne County Circuit Judge Michael Sapala issued a permanent injunction July 28 against the school district's plans to privatize those services and transportation.

..... About 60 transportation, custodial and maintenance workers are members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union.  First Student, based in Ohio, and GCA Services Group, based in Illinois, were set to come in and take over the duties of those employees.

Source: By Beau Hodai, In These Times, June 21, 2010

...... An In These Times investigation shows that the bill's promoters are as equally dedicated to border politics as they are to promoting the fortunes of private prison companies, like Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and Geo Group, which stand to reap substantial profits as more undocumented residents end up in jail.

.... A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, ALEC bills itself as "the nation's largest bipartisan, individual membership association of state legislators" and as a public-private legislative partnership. As such, ALEC claims as members more than 2,000 state lawmakers (one-third of the nation's total legislators) and more than 200 corporations and special-interest groups.

.... Looking at the numbers, it is easy to see why the private-prison industry is eager to expand into immigrant detentions. According to ICE Public Affairs Officer Gillian Brigham, in fiscal year 2009, ICE detained 383,524 individuals, with an average daily prisoner population of 32,098 spread across the nation's 270 immigrant detention centers.

Source: Jim Camden,  The Spokesman-Review (WA), June 23, 2010

OLYMPIA - Washington state's continued control of liquor sales may be in doubt. Sponsors of one ballot measure to turn the sale of all liquor over to private stores, Initiative 1100, say they will turn in nearly 350,000 signatures today, a number that practically guarantees the proposal will be on the Nov. 2 ballot.

Source: By Curt Woodward, The Associated Press (WA),  7/14/10 -11:47 PM

OLYMPIA -- A campaign to end the state's monopoly on workers' compensation insurance appears to have enough support to qualify for the November ballot, adding to a busy initiative season in Washington politics.

..... At present, Washington is one of just four states that do not allow private companies to offer workers' compensation insurance, although some employers self-insure under state supervision.

Source: By Yvette Shields, Bond Buyer, Wednesday, July 14, 2010

New procurement rules aimed at curbing pay to play in contracts awarded by Illinois, its agencies, and its public universities could dampen the flow of creative financing ideas from the public finance community, some market participants believe.

The rules in SB 51, which can be seen at www.ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/96/096-0795.htm, were approved by the General Assembly and signed into law last year as part of a larger package of ethics reforms that included a ban on political contributions from large state contractors.

Source: By Nathan Waggenspack, Dayton Daily News (OH) Thursday, June 17, 2010

Corrections employees from Dayton called legislators Wednesday, June 16, to protest a bill that could lead to more state prisons being run by private companies.

The bill at hand is Senate Bill 269, which would create a Prison Privatization Commission to privatize at least half the state's correctional facilities by the end of 2011.

 .... Employees who are members of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association gathered across the street from the Montgomery Education Pre-release Center, 1901 S. Gettysburg Ave., and made the calls to their representatives Wednesday, June 16.

Source: Stevens Point Journal (WI), Oct 10, 2009

State Sen. Julie Lassa, D-Stevens Point, has circulated The Truth in State Contracting Act, designed to increase transparency, accountability and cost savings in state government contracting.The Joint Audit Committee last week heard that nearly 60 percent of cost-benefit analyses of Department of Transportation engineering consultant contracts from March 2007 through June 2008 showed state staff members could have done the work less expensively -- a trend Lassa said extends throughout state government.

Source:  Sean Holstege, Arizona Republic, Oct. 16, 2009 12:00 AM

The  Arizona has opened the gates to building the state's first private toll road, and would-be developers are poised to rush in.

When Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law in July allowing public-private partnerships to build toll roads, she granted Arizona more freedom than most states to cut such deals, experts say. Arizona Department of Transportation officials expect to set the rules early next year to put the law into action.

Source: By Ted Phillips, Bond Buyer, Monday, October 5, 2009

When the New York Legislature passed a bill in July to impose new restrictions and oversight on public authorities, the legislation's sponsor called it "the most thorough reform of the authority system in American history."

..... More than two months later, the bill has been neither signed nor vetoed as Gov. David Paterson's office negotiates with legislators over objections to the measure.

..... The state comptroller's office generally reviews all contracts for state agencies for more than $50,000. Just a few public agencies, such as the Long Island Power Authority and the New York State Thruway Authority, are currently required to submit contracts to the comptroller's office. Under the new bill, all authority contracts over $1 million would be subject to review by the office.

Source: Cezary Podkul, Infrastructure Investor, September 26, 2009

 ...... The law, California Government Code Section 1090, states that public "employees shall not be financially interested in any contract made by them in their official capacity". But because "employees" has been interpreted over the years to include consultants, a sell-side advisor could very well fall within the scope of the law.

And if that turns out to be the case, then JP Morgan's financial relationships with prospective bidders for the parking assets, such as lending arrangements, could lead to a 1090 violation, which is a felony that could result in prison time.