Reason Foundation on Parks
Cross-posted from Park Privatization
Len Gilroy of the Reason Foundation links my Glenn Beck interview and then goes deep on park privatization issues. Check it out. Potentially the biggest benefit to the public:
Appropriation risk: State parks operating under a concession no longer bear the appropriation risk that we're seeing play out in real life across the country, as parks get axed from state budgets amid rampant state fiscal crises (some examples include California, New York and Louisiana). Really, this is more of a risk that's eliminated, rather than transferred to the concessionaire (see revenue risk discussion above), so revenue/demand risk and appropriations risk are really two sides of the same coin.
m:
It seems obvious to me why the government doesn't want to privatize their operations. What message does it send if, by privatizing, they can turn a cost center into a profit center? Why not, then, privatize schools? Why not all departments? Clearly, they're afraid to be seen as the bloated, inept bureaucracy they are and to lose control.
To get them to capitulate, you're going to have to show them more than a few thousand dollars per year. You're going to have to show them how this benefits them, personally and politically. Something they can print on an election flyer. The only story you give them now is, "Hey, we suck so we outsourced to the private sector and, look, they made so much money, they even paid us some."
February 24, 2010, 9:28 pmBob Smith:
The park crisis notwithstanding, is a single Arizona park service employee going to be laid off?
February 25, 2010, 3:33 am