privatization - THE RIDGEWOOD BLOG.

PATH could be targeted for privatization, service reduction under Port Authority plan embraced by governors

JERSEY CITY — A report by the Port Authority that’s supported by the governors of New York and New Jersey floats the idea of eliminating overnight PATH service and turning over the system’s operation to an outside organization — public or private.

Those ideas, along with others in the 99-page report that was released Saturday night, were slammed today by Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, who said curtailing service on one of the region’s most vital transportation links would hurt not just his city’s economy, but the state as a whole.

“I think that all too often politicians assume the public is stupid, and this is an example of that,” said Fulop, a Port Authority critic whose administration in May filed a $400 million lawsuit against it alleging owed back taxes. “The fact that you’re releasing a report in between Christmas and New Year’s, the fact that there are components of it that are nothing more than a mere power grab.”

But Port Authority Chairman John Degnan, who was on the panel that prepared the report, said the recommendations are not final and that curtailing service is one of several options to save money.

https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/12/port_authority_panel_recommends_eliminating_overnight_path_service.html

Privatization of public water, sewer services systems could be fast-tracked under N.J. bill

Trenton voters were given the opportunity to sell the city’s water system to a private company in 2010. The $80 million sale was defeated in a 4-to-1 landslide.

At Tuesday’s polls, hundreds of voters in tiny Sussex Borough overwhelmingly rejected a similar sale of their public system to private hands, while Haddonfield in Camden County solidly approved selling its deteriorating system to New Jersey American Water.

But such direct public mandate on water and sewer sales may become a thing of the past, as a bill in the Legislatures allowing public entities to fast-track selling water and sewer systems that serve millions advances this fall.

The sponsors of the “Water Infrastructure Protection Act” say it’s a way to get desperately-needed investment into water systems that have been neglected to the breaking point by government owners. The bill’s opponents warn that it’s an attempt to turn private profits of public infrastructure at the expense of taxpayers – who themselves will end up paying for the purchase prices with each flush of the toilet.

https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/11/public_would_no_longer_get_vote_on_selling_water_sewer_systems_under_advancing_nj_bill.html#incart_river