Subjected to the bracing air of real competition, city workers can sometimes come out on top. When Mayor Goldsmith took bids for street maintenance in Indianapolis, the city repair shop actually won the contract, having suddenly found possible savings. The city employees discovered that each pothole did not require eight employees on two trucks, as they had long maintained, but that the job could in fact be done with four workers on one truck. Likewise, in 1978, the city garbage collectors' union in Phoenix lost every single neighborhood contract when private bids were first accepted in some locales. Beating the middle class about the head will not do.
Reform is the only hope.
Dr. Munro is the co-director and CEO of the Calvert Institute. He lives in Baltimore City. This article may be reproduced in part or in full, provided that due acknowledgement is given and correct citation made, noting it to be part of the Calvert Comment series.