La. privatization requires "layer" of oversight

A battle is shaping up in Louisiana that could provide a model for other states to bring public accountability to privatization decisions. On a lopsided 64-27 vote last month, the state House approved a bill that would enable lawmakers to review and veto privatization contracts.

Gov. Bobby Jindal is planning to lay off state workers and hire outside firms to run psychiatric hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Rep. John Bel Edwards said the legislature must be allowed to review long-term contracts to make sure they save money and don't reduce patient care.

Predictably, the pro-privatization Reason Foundation objects that it's too costly to hire three auditors to review the contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Opponents of the legislative review called it "just another layer of bureaucracy."

As recent events have shown, privatization requires that layer -- whether it's called bureaucracy or responsible oversight -- and it must figure in calculations of the cost of privatizing.