A Stitch in Haste

Those who thought that the Bloomberg administration would not be "politics as usual" were, um, wrong:

New York City's 36 fat-cat marshals are about to get even fatter.

The politically connected, mayorally appointed private businessmen will get the multimillion-dollar monopoly on towing parking scofflaws in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and The Bronx by year's end, The [New York] Post has learned.

Officials confirmed that the city's deputy sheriffs are being pulled from the towing program, except on Staten Island, which historically has the fewest scofflaws.

Deputy sheriffs in NYC make $50,000 per year. The average gross income of a private marshal is over $1 million per year. Private marshals receive a 5% commission on any unpaid tickets (which, remember, are public revenues) that they collect; deputies receive a pat on the back.

Boss Tweed would be proud.

Towing the cars of ticket scofflaws is of course a proper function of government. And there is nothing intrinsically wrong with subcontracting public functions to private entreprenueurs, assuming that such arrangements are made at arms-length and preferably by a process of competitive bidding.

But "Businessman Bloomberg" is obviously unfamiliar with the idea of competition.

On the other hand, maybe he'll get some exposure to competition in November.