Corporate Crime

Privatizing New Jersey

Governor Chris Christie is selling off New Jersey public services to private corporations.

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.

What could possibly go wrong?

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.

Privatizing government services in Iraq has been so excellent, let's keep going. Never mind, you know, Blackwater and Halliburton. The electrocutions and civilian shootings are just lemons in the wingnut lemonade.

And by the way, I wonder how many New Jersey Republicans will have connections to the corporations who win the contracts.