Editing 78-09-A6 (section)

= Cities =

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=== Transcript ===
Whenever anyone brings up cutting government costs, the inevitable
question is "what programs do you want to eliminate?" Well, without
getting into a discussion of whether or not there are programs that
should be eliminated, I suggest there may be ways to reduce the cost
of government without eliminating services.

I've spoken before about Scottsdale, Arizona's fire protection costs
running at two-thirds less than for other cities of the same size.
Scottsdale has no city fire department. It contracts out to a private,
profit-making fire fighting company for protection.

Now, through a Santa Barbara based research group which studies
means of lowering spending we learn that many cities have found free
enterprise solutions to a number of costly problems. The president of
the research group, Robert W. Poole, writing in the paper HUMAN EVENTS,
tells of Camden, New Jersey's experience with 90 garbage collectors
operating 16 trucks. Today a private firm does it with 35 employees
and nine trucks.

That same firm has branched out. Last January it took over the
trash collection job in Collingswood, New Jersey and replaced a dozen
public employees with one man and a side-loading truck. In another
nearby community three men and one truck replaced 14 city employees
and five trucks.

Other cities have found they can maximize their investment in
highly trained police officers by using guards from a qualified protection
agency for building security--including even the police station.
This frees higher priced police for crime fighting duty.

Several weeks ago when the debate over Proposition 13 was at fever
pitch in California, a T.V. newscaster reported the results of a little
private sleuthing in one California city. He had witnessed the planting
of a tree along one of the city streets. The tree was sapling-size in
a 15-gallon can. It arrived at the planting site in a truck along with
six city employees. The newscaster who, like all of us, has done a
little home gardening, checked with the city and found the charge for
labor on that tree planting by public employees came to more than $150.
He then called several nurseries and inquired what they would charge
for planting such a tree and how the job would be handled. All of
them said they'd have a fellow bring it over in a pickup truck and
plant it. The charge? Well, the lowest estimate was $7.50 and the
highest $15.00.

Private contracting eliminates the need for cities to have inventories
of expensive equipment often sitting idle for long periods and
even more expensive personnel for whom work must be found at times.

A year ago, Mr. Poole says, an economist at the University of
California in Santa Barbara carried out a statistical analysis of
contract versus non-contract cities in Los Angeles county. On the
average, he learned, that street maintenance in cities that contracted
out had costs 43 per cent lower than those maintaining their own
departments. There were many more examples than I have time for but
maybe your home town might want to get some information from the "Local
Government Center" in Santa Barbara, California. 

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.
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=== Details ===
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<TR><TD WIDTH="150">Batch Number</TD><TD WIDTH="150">{{PAGENAME}}</TD></TR>
<TD>Production Date</TD><TD>06/27/[[Radio1978|1978]]</TD></TR>
<TD>Book/Page</TD><TD>[[Radio_Commentary_Books#Reagan.27s_Path_to_Victory|RPtV-319]]</TD></TR>
<TD>Audio</TD><TD></TD></TR>
<TD>Youtube?</TD><TD>No</TD></TR>
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===Added Notes===

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