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LANSING —Democratic members of the Michigan House of Representatives are pushing for budgetary procedures that will break out budget line items, making it easier to analyze costs associated with the privatization of state government services. "We want to see how it's being spent," said Rep. Tom Mathieu of the way the state handles privatization.
Reacting to the move, Michigan Privatization Report managing editor Michael LaFaive said, "This scrutiny actually underscores one of the many advantages of privatization. Some of these legislators formally spent little time or effort scrutinizing how dollars were spent or how well services were performed by unionized public bureaucracies. All of the sudden, when a service is privately provided, they become interested in making sure it's done right. Sometimes it takes privatization to get legislators interested in saving the taxpayer some money."
