Newswise — Mildred Warner, Cornell professor in city and regional planning, is an expert on privatizing government services. Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, recently suggested privatizing certain government services.
Warner comments on Gov. Walker’s proposals.
She says: “The pressures on politicians – whether they are governors or mayors – are to address fiscal crises and save money. Politicians who talk about privatizing public services because it is less expensive, have later found this to be false. Sometimes privatization can be more costly. “Privatization is not a panacea. Many municipalities – who have privatized services – often reverse course. These reversals are primarily due to problems with service quality and lack of cost savings. Many times they find the private services lack efficiency. And private firms, once competitive on price, become monopolies at a later time. “The International City County Management Association – or ICMA – conducts a survey of alternate service delivery by local governments every five years. There was a trend in the early 1990s toward privatization, but that peaked in 1997. The ICMA surveys show that public delivery is still the most common form of service delivery across all local governments on average.”
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