LURKING in the background of almost every discussion on how to fix our government is the buzzword: "privatization." First championed by conservatives across the mainland and here and then picked up by the Republicans, privatizing government operations is now a talking point for politicians of any flavor. Privatization
of government servicesIt is usually sold as a way to save money, foster competition and increase flexibility.
Of course, it is usually opposed by public worker labor unions. The United Public Workers chief, Gary Rodrigues, for instance, became a household word last summer by his legal challenges to neighbor island moves to farm out county work.
The result set back the privatizing movement by at least a year.
Now, however, there is a new important study out that gives a realistic update on just what the public can expect from exchanging civil servants for private workers.
The report was done for the Council of State Governments and released at its annual convention, completed last week in Honolulu.
The study surveyed state budget directors, auditors, comptrollers, legislative services agencies and directors of state executive agencies.
The results are surprising.
The bad news for the public employees unions is that privatization isn't a fad. It isn't likely to just go away.
In fact 91.7 percent of the legislative services agencies believe privatization will increase.
Overall, 55 percent of those asked agree more and more states will turn to the private sector.
And more than half also said the reason they wanted to privatize was to save money.
How much money has been saved already? Not much, according to the study.
"A majority of state respondents could not estimate the percentages of cost savings...most indicated less than 5 percent," the report said.
Whoops! Something happened on the way to a simple answer for a complex question.
Of course, because government isn't run like a business, many agencies don't track their expenses along a profit and loss system, so it is difficult to measure cost savings.
The study, however, recommends that government agencies seriously organize any attempts at privatization.
First, the state should figure out what a service costs.
Then the state must recognize the barriers to privatization.
For example, in California, when state revenues started to fall, Gov. Pete Wilson proposed a constitutional amendment to remove legal barriers to state and local privatization efforts.
For it to work, privatization must have strong political leadership, according to the study.
That leadership must come from both the governor's office and the legislature.
INCLUDED in that leadership model should be a clear vision of what the governor and legislature want to accomplish.
Finally, the study urges that several qualified private providers compete to deliver services, because without carefully planned competitive bidding, the chance for real cost savings is lessened.
For Hawaii to follow along, it appears that both the governor and the Legislature are going to have to do more than just accept the idea of privatization, but actually include it as part of state and local government.
Whether that can happen in an approaching election year is doubtful.