BILL NUMBER: HR 29	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Gomez

                        FEBRUARY 4, 2014

   Relative to outsourcing public services.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
             HOUSE OR SENATE RESOLUTIONS DO NOT CONTAIN A DIGEST



   WHEREAS, Public services and assets are the fabric that binds our
communities together. They are also a ladder to the middle class; and

   WHEREAS, Faced with severe budget problems in the wake of the
Great Recession, state and local governments across America are
handing over control of public services and assets to corporations
that promise to operate them better, faster, and cheaper; and
   WHEREAS, Outsourcing these services and assets often fails to keep
these promises, and too often it undermines transparency,
accountability, and shared prosperity and competition - the
underpinnings of democracy itself; and
   WHEREAS, Outsourcing means that taxpayers have less say over how
future tax dollars are spent and have no ability to vote out
executives who make decisions that could harm the public interest;
and
   WHEREAS, Outsourcing means taxpayers are often contractually
limited to a single for-profit corporation; and
   WHEREAS, Outsourcing frequently means that wages and benefits for
public service workers fall and the local economy suffers while
corporate profits rise. The American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees (AFSCME) has found that of the 5.4 million people
working for federal service contractors in 2008, an estimated 80
percent earned below the living wage for their city or region.
For-profit corporations are three times more likely than the public
sector to employ workers at poverty-threshold wages; and two million
private sector employees working for federal contractors earn less
than $12 an hour - too little to support a family. That is more low
wage workers than are employed by McDonald's and WalMart combined;
and
   WHEREAS, Outsourcing means that taxpayers often no longer know how
their tax dollars are being spent. Meetings and records that used to
be open to the public can become proprietary information when
corporations take over; and
   WHEREAS, The Taxpayer Empowerment Agenda is one model that may
help ensure transparency, accountability, shared prosperity, and
competition in the operation of public services and assets; and
   WHEREAS, Planks in the Taxpayer Empowerment Agenda would require
governments to post information about their contracts online and
require contractors to open their books to the public, ensure that
governments have the capacity to adequately oversee contracts, to
cancel contracts that fail to deliver on their promises, prohibit law
breaking companies from getting government contracts, require
contractors to pay their employees living wages and benefits, require
competitive bidding on contracts that guarantee company profits at
the expense of taxpayers, and give public service works the
opportunity to develop their own plan on how to deliver
cost-effective, high-quality services; and
   WHEREAS, Recent polling shows that taxpayers oppose the
outsourcing of public services and assets to for-profit companies and
support these common sense controls to ensure that their interests
are protected; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, That the
Assembly opposes outsourcing of public services and assets, which
harms transparency, accountability, shared prosperity, and
competition, and supports processes that give public service works
the opportunity to develop their own plan on how to deliver
cost-effective, high-quality services; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Assembly urges local officials to become
familiar with the provisions of the Taxpayer Empowerment Agenda; and
be it further
   Resolved, That the Assembly intends to introduce and advocate for
responsible outsourcing legislation.
   Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of
this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.