Last Saturday a story in The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer laid out claims that Gov. Pat McCrory pressured the Department of Public Safety to renew prison maintenance contracts with his friend and campaign donor Graeme Keith and his company Keith Corporation that were set to expire at three state correctional institutions in December 2014. In an informal meeting in Charlotte, Keith is claimed to have told a group of prison officials and Gov. McCrory, “he had been working on this project ‘private prison maintenance’ for over ten (10) years and during that time had given a lot of money to candidates running for public office and it was now time for him to get something in return.”

Gov. McCrory quickly issued a statement calling into question several parts of the story. The News & Observer stood by its claims, though, and called on McCrory to face up to the issue.

SEANC Executive Director Mitch Leonard sent an email to all members laying out our response to the story and calling on members to contact their legislators to let them know privatization is bad for the state and for taxpayers. And SEANC’s 2015 Legislator of the Year Rep. Nelson Dollar (R-Wake) spoke out, saying the department should have consulted the legislature’s GovOps committee before renewing the contracts.

This situation only confirms what state employees have known all along, that corporations will do whatever they have to in order to get public contracts, be it in our prisons, in the Department of Transportation, in our universities or anywhere else they see a chance to fleece the taxpayers.