Christie looks to privatize motor vehicle inspections, other services
Friday, July 9, 2010
Last updated: Thursday July 8, 2010, 10:20 PM
BY CLAIRE HEININGER
State House Bureau
STATE HOUSE BUREAU
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.
All told, the report says, New Jersey could
save at least $210 million a year by delivering
an array of services through private hands.
"The question has to be, ‘Why do you
continue to operate in a manner that’s more
costly and less effective?’ rather than, ‘Why
change?’?" said Richard Zimmer, the former
Republican congressman who chaired the
task force.
It is unclear how many of the
recommendations will be adopted by
Governor Christie, who commissioned the
report in March. Christie’s spokesman
declined comment Thursday.
But the car inspection proposal is sure to stir
up controversy in a state with a tortured
history of privatizing emissions testing.
The report says that beginning next July,
"New Jersey should withdraw entirely from
direct participation in the vehicle inspection
process." Before then, the state would
develop a plan to certify service stations and
other shops "to make the transition seamless
for motorists and assure that private
inspection fees will be transparent and
reasonable."
The state would then sell the land where its
facilities now operate.
The proposal would require breaking the
state’s contract with Parsons Corp., which is
two years into a five-year, $276 million deal
to do emissions and mechanical inspections.
The mechanical inspections were already
phased out under the budget that went into
effect July 1.
The state conducts more than 1.94 million
initial inspections a year and pays for all of
them. Drivers pay only if they fail the
inspections and have to make repairs.
Zimmer pointed out that motorists are
already paying for the system through their
tax dollars.
Critics said Christie is returning to
dangerous territory after Parsons’ early years
of managing the inspection program were
steeped in controversy. When the inspection
network was opened in December 1999, it
was plagued by computer malfunctions and
frozen equipment that left drivers fuming in
lines four hours long.
Hetty Rosenstein, New Jersey director of the
Communications Workers of America state
workers union, said the plans outlined in the
report would create "bad service" and "less
safety" while failing to save the state money.
But Zimmer stressed "stringent" controls will
be put in place.
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. But its impact
could be felt from parks — where private
recreation firms would run concessions,
operate facilities and perhaps collect a fee —
to preschools.
The report says the state should end public
funding to construct preschools and change
rules to make it easier for private providers
to run them.
David Sciarra, an attorney and advocate for
children in the poorest districts where the
state Supreme Court has mandated the
preschool program, said the report is
"misleading and erroneous" in claiming the
private sector is being crowded out.
"If anything, the collaboration between
districts and providers ... has grown
stronger, and the private sector is an integral
part of the program," he said. "They should
go back to the drawing board on this one."
E-mail: cheininger@starledger.com
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