Today's Teamster News 08.25.11

Protesters at Ryan's Kenosha office kept out of building  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...the people kept out of Ryan's office are unemployed constituents who want to talk to Ryan about economic issues...
Democracy Convention under way in Madison  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...(Organizer Ben) Manski traces the origins of the "democracy movement" to street protests during the 1999 World Trade Organization's ministerial conference in Seattle. He said the movement was a response to increased corporate power with a desire to bring democracy "closest to the people..."
Governor missed his chance to make nice on SB 5 (opinion)  Toledo Blade   ...After shoving a hard-right agenda at Ohio residents -- who gave him no mandate to do so -- Gov. John Kasich thinks an embittered public will fall for his belated conversion to compromise and conciliation...
Health care cap for public employers sent to Snyder  Detroit News   ...The bill includes a cash limit on how much public employers can contribute for health benefits, unless employees pay 20 percent of costs...
More Hoosier Families Depend On Food Banks  Indy Channel 6   ...More than 100,000 Indiana children don’t have enough to eat,a problem state officials call “food insecurity,” because their families don’t know where their next meal will come from...
FL Gov Scott asks state prison chief to resign  Associated Press   ...Buss had come under fire for how the Department of Corrections was handling some of its privatization efforts...
Marco Rubio: Medicare, Social Security ‘Weakened Us As People,’ Made Us Lazy  ThinkProgress   ...Potential vice president running mate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) dismissed the importance of programs like Medicare and Social Security during a speech at the Reagan Presidential Library this afternoon, arguing that the initiatives “weakened us as people”...

FL prison privatization already $25M over budget

Is anyone the slightest bit surprised that Florida's boondoggle for private prison companies prison privatization is already over budget? By, like, $25 million? 

The Orlando Sentinel reports,

A push to privatize South Florida prisons is already $25 million over budget, even though nothing has happened, thanks to the exorbitant cost of paying for the vacation and sick leave for the 4,000 corrections employees the move would get rid of. The department last week also scrapped plans to privatize health-care services in its prisons statewide.

Both initiatives were pushed by Republicans to save costs.

You don't have to be a criminologist who studies prison privatization to know why it's a bad idea. But here is one such criminologist who trashed Florida's plan. Again, the Sentinel:

Michael Hallett, chair of UNF’s criminology program and author of Private Prisons in America, ...(wrote) “There are so many serious problems with this RFP that it is not easy to digest in one document,” he wrote in the memo he sent to Fasano.

Hallett ... said ... the program could cost the state more money instead of saving it dollars. The biggest problem, he said, is that the the state indicates that it favors awarding the contract for 18 counties to a single vendor.

...The term of the prospective contract will be five (5) years with one five (5) year renewal available.

Hallett argues that this would favor an industry already dominated by just a few companies, making it difficult to create cost efficiencies.

“It renders the state subject to captivity once the contract is awarded, by giving one corporation so much power and control over such a significant segment of the state budget,” he said.

Cory McCray hasn't written a book about prison privatization. He's a young union activist from Baltimore. But he nails the problem with privatizing government services. In a nutshell: less government accountability, rampant misclassification of independent contractors and loss of good middle-class government jobs.

Oh wait, isn't that why Florida decided to privatize the prisons?

Privatize this, Ohio!

Ohio's Legislature is considering privatizing, well, just about everything. The Lottery. The prisons. The turnpike. The schools. College dormitories.

The Toledo Blade (one of the only newspapers in the country to oppose Nafta) asks a couple of good questions:

Why the rush to sell off Ohio's assets?

Are we giving away state and local assets, which taxpayers have spent a lot of money to build, for less than they are worth?

Will privatizing actually cost less?

Will privatization limit our ability to make decisions and deliver good services?

Who will benefit from these deals, and will that adversely affect making of good policy?

The answers are easy: Political payback, yes, no, yes, Kasich's friends.

Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan -- they're all going the privatization route, thanks to their Governors Gone Wild. Here's just one example of what happens when a taxpayer asset -- in this case a prison -- is privatized (thanks firedoglake):

“It was a mini riot, and yet no guards intervened.”

That is the description of the situation which Antoney Jones found himself in almost immediately after arriving at the Idaho Correctional Center. Jones, a black gay man, was intentionally placed by guards into a housing unit where he would be assaulted by other prisoners. “Prisoners throughout the pod lined the rails and began yelling, ‘Kill the nigger,’ ‘Get the fag’ and ‘Kill the rat.’”

Mr. Jones’ story is one of more than a dozen similar ones found in the complaint of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Idaho against CCA for their operation of ICC, a prison so notorious for its violence that it’s been dubbed “gladiator school” by those housed there. The violence is so pervasive particularly because the prison is private; by routinely hiring unqualified staff and reducing staffing levels to the barest of minimums, the prison is literally a breeding ground for violent activity.

Why is Rick Scott unpopular?

Time Magazine, in its slide toward total irrelevence, wonders why Floridians have soured on their new governor, Rick Scott.

Are they simply taking out their anger at the recession – the state’s unemployment rate still sits at almost 11% – on whomever’s sitting in the Governor’s mansion? Is it because, as Scott’s office insisted in a recent statement, he “wasn’t elected to be most popular” but to make “tough decisions” on slashing state spending, including an almost 8% cut in education? Or could it be that Floridians are feeling buyer’s remorse – that they fear Scott is ultimately more interested in serving the Tea Party’s government-eradication agenda than he is in serving them?

Perhaps Time Magazine hasn't noticed, but working and middle class families don't enjoy having their standard of living lowered by the people they elected.

Prison privatization is just one example of the havoc that Rick Scott has wreaked on Florida.

firedoglake reports,

Gov. Rick Scott plans to put every Department of Corrections facility in the 18 counties of Southern Florida on the market, producing a windfall for the GEO Group, which has contributed more than $1 million to the Florida GOP. If GEO Group does what it has done in other states, potentially more than 5,000 experienced and qualified state corrections officers may find themselves replaced by unskilled, low-wage workers. Scott can claim that he is reducing costs, but experience demonstrates that any savings are short-lived. In the end, the costs will be higher for Florida’s taxpayers, as the private companies demand more taxpayer funds to boost their profits to pay their stockholders and fund lucrative salaries for their CEOs and top managers.

Public pays for privatization

It’s a frightening to think that "...the real trend in infrastructure today is not building more of it but privatizing what exists.” In a great Politico piece today, Matt Stoller, a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute, sums up how it appears that everyone but the actual public benefits from privatization:

Political actors get to close deficits without raising taxes on wealthy interests. And the political muscle is provided by the people who ultimately benefit from the deal — the same way that Countrywide, Fannie Mae and allied private bankers brutalized their political critics in the name of homeownership.

Republicans often get the added benefit of eliminating unionized workers and driving their ideology of shrinking the amount of social resources under public control.

For Democrats, the benefits are more subtle. Privatization allows them to paper over the party schism between liberals and neoliberals by spending money for social aims through what is, essentially, an off-balance-sheet channel.

Privatization takes important governmental functions that we need, including everything from roads, mass transit, national defense and prisons, and turns them over to corporate interests whose goal is to make the most money at the least cost.

Florida Gov. Skelator Rick Scott recently signed off on a plan to privatize prisons in 18 counties in the state. In a time when our leaders should be creating jobs, this measure has the potential to eliminate 4,300 jobs.

In a letter to the editor of the Ocala Star-Banner, Sgt. Thomas Johnson, an FDOC officer, warns the public of the risks:

We can’t effectively protect the public and ensure department personnel safety when the first thing private prison operators want to do is cut employees because it eats into their profit margins. Private prisons are required to operate at a rate of 7 percent less cost than state-operated institutions. The private prison industry also makes a profit by hand-selecting model inmates who don’t tend to cause many problems while shipping the more problematic, mental and medically needy inmates back to state-run institutions. This practice puts the bulk of the inmate’s cost back on the tax payer while corporations like GEO Group reap the benefits.

This was nothing more than a political payback since the private prison industry donated more than $1 million to the Republican Party in the last election cycle here in Florida. This also doesn’t come as a surprise since the Police Benevolent Association, which is currently the DOC’s collective bargaining representative, endorsed Alex Sink for governor.

Welcome to the predator state. In the words of economist James K. Galbraith,

Their reason for being is to make money off the state -- so long as they control it. And this requires the marriage of an economic and a political organization...

What better person to lead the predator state of Florida than a former CEO who ran a company that looted Medicare and paid a $1.7 billion fine for the crime?

VIDEO: FL gov's budget-signing scandal

The Florida budget-signing scandal is really over the top, even for a Governor Gone Wild. Perhaps that's why Medicare fraudster Gov. Rick Scott can't shake it a week after it happened. WTSP News reports today,

...a growing number of parties are asking why either the constitution was violated or why the governor's office apparently broke state laws...

As the video above shows, Scott's ceremony to sign the public state budget was held at a retirement community called The Villages. Publicly funded sheriff's deputies ejected elderly attendees because they carried signs criticizing Scott's savage budget cuts. They also wore Democratic Party t-shirts. A spokesman for the governor -- you can hear him -- told the seniors "This is a private event."

(By the way, we can think of no better illustration of James Galbraith's argument that predatory capitalist-politicians like Scott have no concept of "public purpose.")

A reporter for the St. Petersburg Times saw the governor's staffers tell the sheriff's deputies to kick out the Democrats. Another attendee who (we presume) works for the Desoto Juvenile Correctional Facility saw it too -- and posted this comment under the youtube video:

So sorry this happened to you and the others. I attended this event and watched in disgust as you all were asked to leave. I only attended in support of Desoto Juvenile Correctional Facility Complex in Arcadia, Florida being placed on the budget in the 11th hour and we were in hopes Gov. Scott WOULD line-item veto our facility to keep it open. Gov. Scott sent an email from HIS office across the state inviting EVERYONE to the PUBLIC signing. I am so sorry this happened to you!

Scott says he didn't know what happened.

As for us, we're quite clear on what happened. A publicly funded event was run by people who don't understant public purpose. They only understand "friends," "enemies" -- and "prey."

Democrats=Enemies. Prisons=Prey. Scott=One-Term Governor.

Elton John pleads with FL Gov. Rick Scott

First Steven King says he'll have him star in a horror novel. Then Elton John asks him not to cut a program for HIV/AIDS victims in Florida.

Why is it that one of the most unpopular governors in the country is able to attract so much celebrity attention (even if it's not POSITIVE attention)?

The musician, who founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation, wrote to Scott because he'd heard the Department of Health was thinking of changing the income eligibility for a program that helps poor HIV/AIDS victims get medication. A department spokeswoman said there are "no immediate plans" to change the program.

Frank Cerabino, columnist for the Palm Beach Post, may have hit on a reason for all the attention being heaped on Scott. It could be the "Welcome to Florida" signs that now greet people as they enter the Sunshine State. Cerabino was trying to figure out why Scott, who vetoed $615 million of an already frugal budget, would spend $8,800 to have his name added to the highway signs.

It's a warning sign.

When travelers cross into the state and see "Governor Rick Scott," it works on the same level as "Low Flying Aircraft," "Rock Slide Area" or "Slow: Children Playing."

So it's only fair that we warn visitors that they've entered a state run by a corporate pirate.

Some may be visiting with thoughts of moving to Florida and enrolling their children in Florida's public schools.

"Oh, dear," the wife would say. "Governor Rick Scott. He's that voucher schemer who wants to dismantle public education and screw public school teachers. He's the guy who cut per-pupil spending, even though Florida was already 41st in the country in per-pupil spending. Maybe we should turn around...."

Or, we might add, some may be visiting with thoughts that they'd be safe from escaped prisoners. "Oh, dear," the wife would say. "Governor Rick Scott. He's that privatizer who wants to turn our prisons over to for-profit corporations that won't do as good a job preventing escapes as government workers."

Rick Scott signs away good jobs

Florida Gov. Rick Scott will sneak off to The Villages, a retirement community in central Florida, today to sign what he calls "Florida's first jobs budget," a budget that will actually eliminate jobs. The bill includes language allowing the state to privatize prisons in 18 southern counties, also known as Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) Region 4. At risk are about 4,300 correctional officer positions.

Florida has the third largest state prison system in the country, a potential windfall for corporations. It should come as no surprise that the prison industry has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Scott and the GOP in Florida since 2003, but not everyone, even members of the Republican party, are happy about this privatization plan. ThinkProgress quotes Republican Sen. Mike Fasano:

"It's unprecedented in the United States,” said Fasano, who heads the Senate budget committee with oversight of prisons. “I’m a conservative Republican that believes in privatizing certain parts of government services but we should never privatize public safety."

Florida correctional, probation and parole officers couldn't agree more. They've been busy contacting their legislators and making their voices heard in public on this issue. Here are some great letters to the editor that have been published in recent weeks.

Glynn Reeder, a sergeant at Florida State Prison, writes in the Chipley Bugle:

"Times are tough for all of us. We’re all tightening our belts. But as a correctional officer and a member of this community, I am furious at the politicians in Tallahassee for passing a dangerous plan to privatize some of the prisons in the state. They claim that this plan saves us taxpayers’ money, but I wonder what our public safety is really worth."

As Reeder points out, it's not cheaper to privatize:

"The State pays $42.26 per inmate per day. You can find this information on the Department of Corrections’ web page. The state pays, as of this day, to the GEO group which has a correctional facility in South Florida and one in Milton, Florida, $45.80 per inmate per day."

Thomas Johnson, a correctional officer at Marion Correctional Institution in Lowell, writes in the Ocala Star-Banner:

"I see first-hand what the state’s most dangerous criminals are capable of. My fellow officers and I do our best to keep you and your families safe. Private, for-profit prisons refuse to deal with inmates who have extreme mental and medical issues. Instead, they simply send needy inmates back to the state-run institutions. Not only are these practices extremely dangerous to the community but they also create a smokescreen as to what is really going on in the private, for-profit prison industry. We’ve seen it happen before and I guarantee you that we will see these same problems in our own backyards."

New Hampshire, Texas, New Mexico and Ohio are all considering outsourcing their prison operations to corporations. Corporate stooge Ohio Gov. John Kasich went so far as to hire a prison industry official as his Director of Rehabiliation and Corrections.

Teamster retirees living at The Villages,  make sure you pay Rick Scott a visit today and let him know what you think of his job-killing, public safety-endangering bill.