PEF earmarks $1 million for campaign to educate, agitate and mobilize members, public

One million dollars: That is how much the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) is investing in quality public services and its members who work for state government.

In February, PEF, the largest AFT Public Employees local, launched “Go Public: Invest in Public Employees, The Returns Are Better for New York Taxpayers.” The $1 million campaign against privatization of public services to the private sector and shadow agencies will be implemented over 20 months. Phase one, already under way, includes print advertisements to educate the public and policymakers and a Web site (www.stopprivatization.org) that provides access to case studies, privatization failures in New York and analyses debunking the affordability and efficiency myths that the private sector is a better provider of public services.

PEF is hopeful its investment will produce excellent returns—accountability within state government, including the legislative and executive branches, for quality public services.

“We have been telling state policymakers for years that the loss of accountability, when they take public services out of the hands of state employees and hand them off to others, costs New Yorkers far too much both in tax dollars and lost quality,” said PEF president Roger Benson. “We are telling the state to save money and improve the quality of its public services by putting them back in the hands of state employees and by setting rigorous rules and standards for the awarding of any future contracts to the private sector.”

Among the rules and standards PEF is lobbying the Legislature to establish is full disclosure by state agencies of the number of contract employees they use and a mandatorycost-benefit analyses before contracting out.