Harley said the new panel will take a "comprehensive" look at all of state government in an effort to determine its "core functions" and whether some services might be better handled by the private sector.

It's unlikely the new panel will take on the sale of the liquor stores — there's already a task force for that. Ditto for roads and bridges. And Corbett is already on the record as opposed to any wholesale privatization of the state's prison system.

So where does that leave this new task force?

Matthew Brouillette, president of the Commonwealth Foundation, which favors privatization, has a couple of ideas.

Chief among them is turning over the operation of state parks to private vendors. Brouillette also said he'd favor privatizing the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, which handles student loans, and the Pennsylvania Lottery.

In short, if the service can be found in the local Yellow Pages, then the taxpayers shouldn't be paying for it, the think tank concluded in a May 26 report on government privatization. Brouillette says there are ways to build language into contracts to protect taxpayers from getting gouged by private operators who have to make money and, often, report to shareholders.

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