Local Government Infrastructure and the False Promise of Privatization

Local Government Infrastructure and the False Promise of Privatization

Local public services-water and sewer systems, roads and bridges, solid waste management, and human services-create the physical and social infrastructure needed for sustainable economic development. Local government leaders, whether Republican, Democrat, or Independent, are pragmatic managers focused on providing quality services that make communities desirable places to live and attractive to economic development.



In this report, Mildred E. Warner lays out the infrastructure crisis currently facing local governments and explains the need for increased federal investment to confront this crisis. Warner presents actual trends in local government service delivery and shows the empirical results of the effects of privatization over the past decade. Despite the hype about privatization over the past two decades, Warner finds that local governments have discovered the limits of privatization and have scaled back some of their initiatives, and instead now look at it more as one tool among many in finding pragmatic solutions to solving today's infrastructure needs. Download the PDF here.