Rep. Dickinson has introduced HB 1045 which would require a review of contract savings whenever a political subdivision contracts for the private performance of functions performed by governmental employees. The private contractor must provide verifiable evidence that the cost to the political subdivision will be less under the private contract than having the functions performed by governmental employees. The contract must specify that the political subdivision may not pay more to the private contractor than it would have paid to have the functions performed by governmental employees. The political subdivision must determine what the actual cost is to have the function performed by its employees. And, the employees essentially get a right of first refusal where they can offer to provide the function at the cost cited by the private contractor.
On the one hand, it seems like a huge bureaucratic hassle. On the other hand, it would be nice to have actual evidence that privatizing saves money rather than merely having it accepted as an article of faith.
[tags]HB1045-2007, privatization[/tags]
Leave a Reply