KINDER'S COMMENTARY: BENEFITS OF PRIVATIZATION ARE MOUNTING

"Overall, a massive American move toward selling off many of the government's services and assets would be following a sweeping worldwide trend that has proved extremely successful and yielded huge government savings.

"From 1979 to 1987, sales of British government assets directly raised over $40 billion, saved scores of billions more in reduced government costs and transferred some 600,000 employees from public to private payrolls." -- The weekly "Human Events"

How often have you heard it said that "government should be run more like a business"? Plenty, I'd bet.

The story is told that the verb "to privatize" appeared in no English dictionary prior to 1983. It was that year that famed management consultant Peter Drucker coined the term in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece. Privatization means the selling off of government services and assets to private interests that can run those operations more efficiently and at lower costs, offering superior service to consumers. For more than a decade, privatization has been accelerating worldwide.

As indicated by the above-quoted excerpt, a key pioneer in early privatization is the magnificent Lady Maggie Thatcher, prime minister from 1979 to 1990. New Zealand has been a leader too, privatizing its way to an astonishing 60 percent reduction in government payrolls over the last 12 years. The resulting surpluses in government revenue have been "embarrassingly large," according to Kelly Beeman, director of New Zealand's North American Investment Promotion Unit. Savings have been so large that New Zealanders are looking forward to the first of three tax cuts this July. Services sold off include a government-run airline, a rural bank, the telephone company and rail system.

Now, privatization is hitting the states and spreading rapidly. Although it received special impetus from the massive Republican gains in the 1994 elections, this is a bipartisan trend. Democratic mayors in Philadelphia and Chicago are trying it out, as is Georgia's Democratic Gov. Zell Miller. States that are emerging as the real leaders in privatization, however, are all led by Republican governors: New York, California, New Jersey and Michigan.

In New York, Gov. George Pataki, who defeated the mighty Mario Cuomo in '94, is looking at selling off airports and their terminals, including JFK International. "Gov. Pataki clearly aims to become a national leader in privatization," say John O'Leary and William Eggers, authors of "Revolution at the Grassroots," a book that chronicles the trend. In California, Gov. Pete Wilson has ordered cabinet officials to undertake a six-month study of which government assets might be sold.

In Michigan, Gov. John Engler, prominently mentioned as a possible running mate for Sen. Bob Dole, is also moving aggressively. Last year, Gov. Engler's $255 million sale of the state's workers compensation fund to Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan became the largest single privatization sale in the country. In New Jersey, savings reached $60 million in the fiscal year 1996 budget of Gov. Christy Todd Whitman. Included in competitive projects were private operation of adult activity centers, day care centers, some motor vehicle department functions, and contracting out to a private vendor medical services for inmates. Still other states are privatizing prisons, with savings ranging from 5 percent to 15 percent. One inmate told the New York Times that he had a better chance at changing his life than he did in a government-run institution.

Look for privatization to continue as further benefits are proven.

~Peter Kinder is the associate publisher of the Southeast Missourian and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.