State owned and employee owned are very different, though both are better than the corporate system we have now. Both have advantages and disadvantages though. State owned ideally operates solely for the benefit of the public, though the government has to not be corruptable. Employee owned answers to employees, so it operates in their best interest, which is often to customers best interest too. They aren't run purely to generate a profit for shareholders. They're generally operated to be stable and provide good jobs for a long time, and not exploit employees obviously.

Co Ops are owned by the employees or customers/members depending on how they are setup. The article was implying it being owned by the local government like utilities and roads are.