Category archive for ‘Privatization’ rss

  • Prison privatization comes up short – new $114 million budget hole?

    Today we learned that the Governor’s plan to sell 5 state prisons for $200 million has turned into a scheme to sell only one facility for $73 million, and other steps to save an additional $13 million. So, unless our math is wrong, that means there is a new $114 million hole in the state budget.

    9/01/11 • (1)

  • Selling off the state: an update

    Going into conference committee negotiations (more on that later), I thought it might be handy to provide a little scorecard of various state assets and programs that will be, or were proposed to be, privatized in the state budget process.

    6/09/11 • (5)

  • How big is the budget hole anyways, Act 2

    Today Innovation Ohio released their report looking at the real size of the budget hole in Governor Kasich’s budget. And I’m sure you will be shocked to learn that it is no were near as large as the administration has been claiming it is.

    6/07/11 • (0)

  • Sen. Grendell’s amendment would have added $300 million to Local Gov’t Fund

    Last week Sen. Grendell attempted to add an amendment to the budget that would have increased the profit the state would have realized from sale of the liquor business to JobsOhio while at the same time giving $300 million more to the local government fund. Why is this amendment needed and why are we still trying to determine the true value of the liquor business in Ohio?

    6/01/11 • (3)

  • Senator Grendell wants to fix horrible liquor privatization plan

    One Senator agrees with us that the Governor is horribly undervaluing the worth of the state’s revenue stream from its liquor monopoly and seeks an amendment to fix that, while helping local governments at the same time. Will it see the light of day in light of competing demands from nursing homes and the Governor’s plan for a tax cut?

    5/26/11 • (2)

  • House GOP pissing in Kasich’s toolbox

    In exchange for cutting local government funding in half, Governor Kasich has emphasized how he is giving local officials “tools” to make up for the loss of funds. One way that he sold his proposal to privatize state prisons was to tell local officials that the new private owners of prisons would pay property taxes, adding to the local tax base. We posted about this the other day. Well, so much for that. The House amended the budget to benefit private prison operators at the expense of revenue for Ohio communities.

    5/05/11 • (3)

  • Private prisons: local governments win some and lose some

    As a result of the budget’s privatization of prisons, local governments will begin collecting property taxes on facilities in their communities. On the downside, they’ll also have to provide safety forces when incidents occur. You win some and you lose some. Actually, in this budget, mostly you lose, so we count this proposal as a bright spot.

    5/03/11 • (1)

  • JobsOhio Math, v. 2

    Given the lawsuit filed yesterday over Kasich’s JobsOhio plan, I am reminded that the math in the Governor’s budget about funding JobsOhio has never been adequately explained. We posted about it before, but that was before the budget bill was available and before the administration had testified in committee. Since then, the details seem to have changed slightly, but still don’t add up.

    4/19/11 • (4)

  • Budget bill could be six pages shorter

    Remember the six pages in the budget that we told you about in which Governor Kasich strips the General Assembly of its oversight authority and hands his unelected Budget Director the keys to sell off state assets and services to anyone he deems qualified? Yesterday, Innovation Ohio issued its new “Taxpayer Rip-Off of the Week Award.” And now it seems—thankfully—that the legislature noticed it too.

    4/13/11 • (0)

  • This week in budget action

    It appears that our earlier intel on the schedule for moving the budget bill out of the House was exactly on target. Today, Gongwer confirmed that House Finance Chairman Amstutz has set a Friday deadline for Amendments to the bill, with two weeks of “drafting” to follow, a substitute bill introduced April 28, and passage by the full House the first week of May. This week is all about hearing public testimony, and we provide an overview of what to expect.

    4/11/11 • (0)