Alternative Service Delivery Systems: Implications for Minority Economic Advancement

摘要

This report examines the effects of local governments' contracting public services to private entities on employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for minorities. The study analyzed the experiences of 10 cities with at least 50,000 population of which no less than 20 percent was minority. It also assessed the impact of alternative service delivery on municipal pension obligations and the pension benefits of municipal workers. Minorities, especially blacks, are particularly vulnerable to arrangements that reduce government employment, because they are a large proportion of governmentnemployees. Although minorities gained employment with private service providers in about the same proportion as with city departments, they earned less. Minority firms seldom benefited from business opportunities presented by alternative service delivery, since few operated in fields that could be adapted to public services. The report identifies options to mitigate the adverse consequences of alternative service delivery for municipal employees. It concludes that alternative service delivery is not inherently detrimental to minorities, but that reducing government employment may curtail an important avenue of social and economic mobility for minorities. Tables, the survey questionnaire, and over 100 references are included.