Mendacious Mitchs' Indiana For Sale

One of the major points behind NOT privatizing social services for Americas' citizens is oversight. (did that sound calm? good.) That's all the calm you get.

First, I outlined some of the problems and bs that ensued with Mr Daniels conversion of the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to be run by a private company here.

Sounds pretty crappy, eh? Problems on top of problems.
Did he learn his lesson? What do you think?

Mitch Daniels Outlines Plans to Privatize Lottery
By kpaul
Posted on Thu Dec 14, 2006 at 09:17:23 PM EST

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - Governor Mitch Daniels today proposed to transform higher education in Indiana by creating a new scholarship for top Hoosier students who remain in-state after graduation, as well as a fund that will enhance the state's key knowledge-based industries by bringing world-class researchers and scholars to Indiana's public universities. (snip)

The governor proposed franchising the Hoosier Lottery for a fixed term to a contractor, which would operate the Lottery while continuing current payment levels to the state. The state would license and regulate the operator, as it does today with casinos and horse tracks that are run by private companies.

(snip)
According to other news reports, the proposal has caught some people by surprise.

Dan Parker, Indiana Democratic Party Chair, was quoted in Inside Indiana Business as saying, "We don't know for how long he wants to lease the Lottery or whether he'd allow a private company to expand gambling in our state to make a higher profit. All we know is that he's decided he wants to sell off a profit-generating agency to a private company."

Okay, stupid but not crazy, right?

Daniels clears welfare privatization
Critics worry about outsourcing $1.16 billion in services for needy.

MIKE SMITH
Associated Press Writer

INDIANAPOLIS -- Gov. Mitch Daniels on Wednesday signed a controversial $1.16 billion contract to pay a team led by IBM Corp. to help run programs for food stamps, Medicaid and other assistance for the needy.

The contract calls for the state to pay the team the money over 10 years to help process applications for the programs and lend technical support to the state's Family and Social Services Administration, which now handles the work.

The decision to move forward with the plan comes after months of discussions and review and strong criticism by some Democrats, caseworkers, union representatives and advocates for the needy.


"For taxpayers, a billion dollars of savings," Daniels said in a news release. "For recipients, better service and a better chance to escape welfare for the world of work and self-reliance. No decision we've made is more clearly in the public interest."

Critics have said the state should not outsource services for the needy to a for-profit company.

They worry that Indiana might encounter some of the same problems as other states that opted for private vendors. That includes Texas, where some applicant benefits have been delayed.

So, how did the Texas, version turn out?

John Young: Texas's privatization disaster

Sunday, May 14, 2006

AUSTIN — It’s one of Texas’ biggest stories in years. Too bad few Texans know about it.

It’s the great Texas Push-Button Bureaucracy-Eliminating Paper-Pusher Massacre (TPBBEPPM). I made that name up but not the debacle that state policymakers now face. It’s a mess they’re hoping will slide right past your nose.

It was part of a massive privatized effort to change how Texas grants food stamps, Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Texans were told in 2003 that privatization of social services not only would save taxpayers money but serve more needy people.

This came under a massive restructuring of social services and a creature called TIERS — Texas Integrated Eligibility Redesign System.

The concept dates back to the ’90s and George Bush’s time in the governor’s mansion. The objective: to hand state services en masse to private contractors. They would use computers and distant call centers to do the jobs that a community-based state workforce has done in eligibility centers around Texas.

TIERS was derailed for a while in part by the Clinton administration, which was skeptical that it would get the job done. Most of these are federal benefits after all.

In 2003, no such obstacle remained. Bush was where Clinton had been. And the GOP controlled Texas government. Promising big savings to taxpayers, lawmakers went whole hog on privatization.

The big winner from all of this was Bermuda-based Accenture LLP.

Having won contracts elsewhere, including a voter-purge list in Florida used in the 2000 presidential elections, Accenture led a consortium which won an $899 million contract to replace Texas’ system of determining eligibility for state services.

Last week, after massive backlogs and interminable waits for people needing help at pilot sites in Travis and Hays counties, state Health and Human Service Commissioner Albert Hawkins told Accenture to clean up its act. Meanwhile, affected eligibility centers were returning to pre-Accenture procedures. Under privatization, applications routed through a clearinghouse in Midland were backing things up like hair down a drain.

The state advised 2,000 state eligibility workers that their jobs either were going away or they would need to reapply, in many cases requiring them to relocate.

Now, with all the delays, and with some applications that appeared to vanish after reaching Midland, the state has said “Not so fast” to at least 1,000 of the previously unneeded employees.

We all like to deride paper pushers and bureaucracy, but when it comes to administering state services, paper-pushing is what it takes — or at least sufficient numbers of human hands to keep things straight.
(snip)

In some ways, this mess has the look of another rush-into-the-fray, go-with-your-gut, on-the-cheap endeavor: like Operation Iraqi Freedom.

How appealing it is to put our trust in a hunch and think that government can do something massive and fundamental with minimal investment, particularly of the human kind.

Governing — whether administering food stamps in Texas or remaking a war-shattered country — is a lot more complicated than awarding bids.

I'm aware this is not new, the "privatizing of the government", but right now, right here in Indiana you have a stunningly clear case of it happening as we watch it. In my section of Indiana, people are not happy about this, most vocally calling for the privatization of the Governors' office (heh).

The Republicans and Business Neo-Cons think they are going to get away with this and dismantle the interior workings of the system so totally that no Democrat can put the pieces back together.

We all know exactly what it is they want.




And how good is Mitch at predicting costs?

Not So Much.

MITCH DANIELS

Role In Going To War: Mitch Daniels was the director of the Office of Management and Budget from January 2001 through June of 2003. In this capacity, he was responsible for releasing the initial budget estimates for the Iraq War which he pegged at $50 to $60 billion. The estimated cost of the war, including the full economic ramifications, is approaching $1 trillion. [MSNBC, 3/17/06]

Where He Is Now: In 2004, Daniels was elected Governor of Indiana. [USA Today, 11/3/04]

Key Quote: Mitch Daniels had said the war would be an “affordable endeavor” and rejected an estimate by the chief White House economic adviser that the war would cost between $100 billion and $200 billion as “very, very high.” [Christian Science Monitor, 1/10/06]

Cross posted at Daily Kos