Food and Water Watch, 7/1/2012
This guide provides an overview of the process and a number of logistical considerations involved in government purchases of privately owned water and sewer systems.
NYS Public Employees Federation, 6/1/2012
This report estimates that the New York Department of Transportation could save $90 million by insourcing work to public staff that is now done by outside consultants. This study takes a focused look at DOT spending on engineering consultants and includes detailed cost comparisons.
In The Public Interest, 6/1/2012
Public officials, advocates and the media should ask these simple ten questions --- and get the answers --- before any final privatization decision. It's a test to see if these deals will help, or hurt, the public interest.
Canadian Union of Public Employees, 6/1/2012
This guide asks questions that probe deeper into the costs and benefits of Public-Private Partnerships (P3s), giving municipalities a better understanding of what they involve. Based on the answers to these questions, this guide urges municipalities to take a cautious stand, fully examine the evidence, and ask the right questions before considering entering into a P3.
US PIRG Education Fund, 5/31/2012
This report provides an overview of the campus card marketplace and includes a survey of campus cards at the 50 largest public universities, 50 largest community colleges, and 20 largest private universities by campus population. It recommends best practices by colleges and banks and new protections for consumers, and provides tips for students. Greater transparency will help make the market work better.
Arizona PIRG, 5/21/2012
A new report, Shining a Light on the Arizona Commerce Authority,examines how transparent the Arizona Commerce Authority has been with the grant and tax credit programs it oversees. The report, released today by the Arizona PIRG Education Fund, discovered that while the Arizona Commerce Authority provides checkbook-level detail for some of the programs it administers, it fails to disclose the recipients and amounts of taxpayer-funded subsidies for 9 of 13 grant and tax credit programs.
National Center on Crime and Delinquency, 5/14/2012
This new report focuses on the disconnect between claims made by supporters of privatization and the true impact of the private prison industry. The report provides jurisdictions, communities, and advocates with information and recommendations regarding slowing the growth of private prisons and improving existing facilities. The report was funded by the Public Welfare Foundation.
Economic Policy Institute, 5/2/2012
This briefing paper begins by providing background on the public sector's commitment to equal opportunity and affirmative action in employment, and then explores the degree to which women and African Americans are overrepresented in state and local government jobs. It next turns to a discussion of how state and local public-sector workers have significantly higher levels of education than their private-sector peers, yet are consistently underpaid relative to similar private-sector workers. Then, it compares racial- and gender-based wage disparities in the state and local public sectors and the private sector. The briefing paper next explains the disproportionate impact of state and local public-sector job cuts on women and African Americans, and concludes by contrasting the private sector's slow jobs recovery with continued employment declines in the public sector.
Food and Water Watch, 4/26/2012
Since their creation in 1862, land-grant universities have revolutionized American agriculture. These public institutions delivered better seeds, new plant varieties and advanced tools to farmers who deployed scientific breakthroughs to increase agricultural productivity. They pioneered vitally important research on environmental stewardship, such as soil conservation. Land-grant universities partnered with farmers in research efforts, advancing rural livelihoods and improving the safety and abundance of food for consumers.
In The Public Interest, 4/18/2012
Last month Citizens for Tax Justice released a report, "Corporate Tax Dodging in the Fifty States, 2008 - 2010." The report identified sixty-eight large corporations that paid no state income taxes in at least one of those three years despite booking billions in profits in those years.
In the Public Interest matched that list with ALEC's corporate donors. Of those sixty-eight corporations that paid no taxes, thirty-three have a history of supporting ALEC.
