Chris Christie Privatizes New Jersey

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is proposing a massive privatization program for the state. A 57-page report gives the steps necessary to save $210 million a year by putting many services in the hands of private enterprise. Finally we have an outspoken public champion of the private sector.

Governor Chris Christie

Two thousand state employees may lose their jobs.

From North Jersey.com [my formatting]:

(1) State parks, psychiatric hospitals and even turnpike toll booths could also be run by private operators, 


(2) Preschool classrooms would no longer be built at public expense,

(3) state employees would pay for parking

(4) private vendors would dish out food, deliver health care and run education programs behind prison walls.

The most controversial loss to privatization is the state withdrawing entirely from the state vehicle inspections:

New Jersey would close its centralized car inspection lanes and motorists would pay for their own emissions tests....

But the car inspection proposal is sure to stir up controversy in a state with a tortured history of privatizing emissions testing.

Currently, New Jersey pays for the complete inspection process.