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United States News Title: Christie administration recommends massive privatization of N.J. services Christie administration recommends massive privatization of N.J. services Published: Friday, July 09, 2010, 5:01 AM Updated: Friday, July 09, 2010, 9:18 AM Claire Heininger/Statehouse Bureau Share TRENTON — New Jersey would close its centralized car inspection lanes and motorists would pay for their own emissions tests under a sweeping set of recommendations set to be released by the Christie administration today. State parks, psychiatric hospitals and even Turnpike toll booths could also be run by private operators, according to the 57-page report on privatization obtained by The Star-Ledger. Preschool classrooms would no longer be built at public expense, state employees would pay for parking and private vendors would dish out food, deliver health care and run education programs behind prison walls. All told, the report says, New Jersey could save at least $210 million a year by delivering an array of services through private hands. "The question has to be, ‘Why do you continue to operate in a manner that’s more costly and less effective?’ rather than, ‘Why change?’" said Richard Zimmer, the former Republican congressman who chaired the task force that wrote the report. It is unclear how many of the recommendations will be adopted by Gov. Chris Christie, who commissioned the report in March. Christie’s spokesman declined comment Thursday. But the car inspection proposal is sure to stir up controversy in a state with a tortured history of privatizing emissions testing. The report says that beginning next July, "New Jersey should withdraw entirely from direct participation in the vehicle inspection process." Before then, the state would develop a plan to certify service stations and other shops "to make the transition seamless for motorists and assure that private inspection fees will be transparent and reasonable." The state would then sell the land where its facilities now operate. The proposal would require breaking the state’s contract with Parsons Corp., which is two years into a five-year, $276 million deal to do emissions and mechanical inspections. The mechanical inspections were already phased out under the budget that went into effect July 1. The state conducts more than 1.94 million initial inspections a year and pays for all of them. Drivers pay only if they fail the inspections and have to make repairs. The state has offered centralized inspections since 1938. Zimmer pointed out that motorists are already paying for the system through their tax dollars. Critics said Christie is returning to dangerous territory after Parsons’ early years of managing the inspection program were steeped in controversy. When the inspection network was opened in December 1999, it was plagued by computer malfunctions and frozen equipment that left drivers fuming in lines four hours long. Hetty Rosenstein, New Jersey director of the Communications Workers of America state workers union, said the plans outlined in the report would create "bad service" and "less safety" while failing to save the state money. But Zimmer stressed "stringent" controls will be put in place. Despite past predictions that up to 2,000 public employees could lose their jobs to privatization, the report does not specify the number of layoffs to come. But its impact could be felt from parks — where private recreation firms would run concessions, operate facilities and perhaps collect a fee — to preschools. The report says the state should end public funding to construct preschools and change rules to make it easier for private providers to run them. David Sciarra, an attorney and advocate for children in the poorest districts where the state Supreme Court has mandated the preschool program, said the report is "misleading and erroneous" in claiming the private sector is being crowded out. "If anything, the collaboration between districts and providers ... has grown stronger, and the private sector is an integral part of the program," he said. "They should go back to the drawing board on this one."
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