For Immediate Release
Thursday, May 18, 2000
Public Opposes Privatizing Public Services, AFSCME Poll Shows
WASHINGTON —Privatization of public services has the support of just one-third of American voters, according to a recent survey of 600 attentive voters. Furthermore, when voters are given the option to run government more like a business or to privatize government services, Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike choose, by at least a two-to-one margin, to run government more like a business.
The research, conducted by Lake Snell Perry & Associates (LSPA) for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) AFL-CIO, tested voter opposition to business-run government services before and after exposure to arguments on both sides of the issues. Initially, 44% of the voters opposed privatization of government services and operations, 32 % supported it, while 25% said they didn't know. When exposed to arguments both for and against privatization, total voter opposition to privatization rose to 54%.
"Voters want efficiency and accountability in government," said Gerald W. McEntee, president of AFSCME. "But they don't believe that business is a substitute for good government." Furthermore, McEntee noted that 59% of the voters polled said that government managers and politicians are more responsible for problems with government services than front-line workers.
The survey by LSPA showed that voters are worried about business accountability when services are privatized, but, across party lines, they are even more worried about fairness and equality. Of the voters polled, 77%, regardless of party affiliation, say that states considering privatization should enact accountability legislation, which requires open financial books and public oversight of contractors. Furthermore, 53% favor - and just 27% oppose -- legislation that would require government contractors to offer jobs to current, qualified public employees and to protect citizen privacy, while denying government contracts to repeated violators of environmental, civil rights, workplace safety and other laws.
"In state after state and city after city where privatization has been tried, there have been serious problems," McEntee continued. " Some problems have been with conflicts of interest, some with poor service delivery, more expensive service delivery and the lack of accountability.
"The public always pays for privatization," McEntee said. "Americans know that the profit motive brings a whole new dimension to what are supposed to be public services. Our tax dollars are intended to pay for government service, not for private profits."
McEntee noted that AFSCME is launching a nationwide campaign to educate the public on the problems of privatization. "Business is not a replacement for government. Americans know that intuitively, but we don't think they're aware of all the government services that private enterprise would like to usurp. We want to alert the public so that they will raise their voices against privatizing our government," he concluded.
The research by Lake Snell Perry & Associates, which was conducted last fall but just released today, included a random sample of a total of 600 adults, at least 18 years of age, who are registered to vote, are involved in their communities and are attentive to public issues. The data were weighted by age, education, race, party identification and geographic region to ensure the sample accurately reflects the population. The margin of error for the voter sample is +- 4.0%.
- Summary of Public Service Privatization Survey
