Efforts by members of CSEA/SEIU Local 2001 to bring the true costs of outsourcing public services to light were vindicated last week at the state and local levels. First, it was reported that privatized bridge inspections in Connecticut have cost an additional $25 million since 2007. Then, it was revealed that taxpayers in Preston would lose $45,000.00 annually if school bus services were contracted-out.

The first story followed our announcement that the Department of Transportation (DOT) had finally disclosed the cost for outside consultants to review the state's road, highway, and rail bridges.

The fact that privatized inspections are costing taxpayers more than twice those provided by the DOT's own professional engineering staff would be reason enough to abandon this wasteful practice. But as our Union members working in the agency argued over two decades as they fought to reform the state's contracting policies, it's also a risk to the safety of the traveling public.

Safety has also been a significant factor in our months-long fight to keep officials in Preston Public Schools from outsourcing their bus services to an outside private transportation company. And when combined with revelations that these contractors would drive up costs for local taxpayers in the small southeastern Connecticut community, the privatization folly becomes apparent.

Our Union members employed by the district to provide safe, reliable services for Preston's students were there for last week's school board meeting when officials again tabled a vote on outsourcing. As the New London Day reported, uncertainty about current and proposed cost estimates for school bus services lead to the delay.

But a keen community member has found the flaws in an initial study commissioned by the board, and identified the tens of thousands of dollars that would be wasted by outsourcing. Local officials should act decisively to put a complete stop to a scheme that is costly, unpopular, and risky at the next Board of Education meeting on Monday, September 13.

At the same time, state lawmakers and the next governor should act to end the DOT's overreliance on outside consultants who are overcharging taxpayers to inspect Connecticut's transportation infrastructure. That is the kind of direction that Connecticut's transportation professionals want to take our state in.

Especially now that our members' warnings to management, administrators, and elected officials not to blindly follow the "cheaper, better, faster" mantra of the pro-privatization propagandists have been justified again.