P1 1WHEREAS, Public services and assets are the fabric that binds
2our communities together. They are also a ladder to the middle
3class; and
4WHEREAS, Faced with severe budget problems in the wake
5of the Great Recession, state and local governments across America
6are handing over control of public services and assets to
7corporations that promise to operate them better, faster, and
8cheaper; and
9WHEREAS, Outsourcing these services and assets often fails
10to keep these promises, and too often it undermines transparency,
11accountability, and shared prosperity and competition - the
12underpinnings of democracy itself; and
13WHEREAS, Outsourcing means that taxpayers have less say
14over how future tax dollars are spent and have no ability to vote
P2 1out executives who make decisions that could harm the public
2interest; and
3WHEREAS, Outsourcing means taxpayers are often
4contractually limited to a single for-profit corporation; and
5WHEREAS, Outsourcing frequently means that wages and
6benefits for public service workers fall and the local economy
7suffers while corporate profits rise. The Center for American
8Progress Action Fund has found that of the 5.4 million people
9working for federal service contractors in 2008, an estimated 80
10percent earned below the living wage for their city or region.
11For-profit corporations are three times more likely than the public
12sector to employ workers at poverty-threshold wages; and two
13million private sector employees working for federal contractors
14earn less than $12 an hour - too little to support a family. That is
15more low wage workers than are employed by McDonald’s and
16WalMart combined; and
17WHEREAS, Outsourcing means that taxpayers often no longer
18know how their tax dollars are being spent. Meetings and records
19that used to be open to the public can become proprietary
20information when corporations take over; and
21WHEREAS, The Taxpayer Empowerment Agenda is one model
22that may help ensure transparency, accountability, shared
23prosperity, and competition in the operation of public services and
24assets; and
25WHEREAS, Planks in the Taxpayer Empowerment Agenda
26would require governments to post information about their
27contracts online and require contractors to open their books to the
28public, ensure that governments have the capacity to adequately
29oversee contracts, to cancel contracts that fail to deliver on their
30promises, prohibit law breaking companies from getting
31government contracts, require contractors to pay their employees
32living wages and benefits, require competitive bidding on contracts
33that guarantee company profits at the expense of taxpayers; and
34WHEREAS, Recent polling shows that taxpayers oppose the
35outsourcing of public services and assets to for-profit companies
36and support these common sense controls to ensure that their
37interests are protected; now, therefore, be it
38Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, That the
39Assembly opposes outsourcing of public services and assets, which
40harms transparency, accountability, shared prosperity, and
P3 1competition, and supports processes that give public service
2workers the opportunity to develop their own plan on how to
3deliver cost-effective, high-quality services; and be it further
4Resolved, That the Assembly urges local officials to become
5familiar with the provisions of the Taxpayer Empowerment
6Agenda; and be it further
7Resolved, That the Assembly intends to introduce and advocate
8for responsible outsourcing legislation; and be it further
9Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
10of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.
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