Article

2010-09-07 Economy

$timulus fails to get the 'job' done in city

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Posted by Fred 2010-09-07 00:00|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 The problem with infrastructure projects is that they usually end up with the 'usual suspects' who've been doing business with the usual people in government all along. Those usual suspects are generally the same two or three contract fronts that get nearly all the contracts in that geographical area with little or no competition. They just rehire the same people they keep on a revolving roster, like calling up (baseball) players from the minor leagues in the farm system. Real competition doesn't exist when the pool of available bidders has contracted to the level we witness today. So, either you put up with cost inefficiencies to maintain a larger pool or you pay for less competition. You can't win, you can't lose, you can't quit the game.

Posted by Procopius2k 2010-09-07 08:55|| 2010-09-07 08:55|| Front Page Top

#2 On top of that isn't there something in the Stimulus about only hiring *union* contractors?

Posted by CrazyFool 2010-09-07 10:53|| 2010-09-07 10:53|| Front Page Top

#3 It's already constrained by Davis-Bacon Act to pay 'prevailing wages and benefits'. That puts an artificial basement, usually the boom time level, upon wages just like propping up home/commercial property prices rather than let them sink to what the market can bear. Quantity of employment is trumped by quality of employment.

Posted by Procopius2k 2010-09-07 11:05|| 2010-09-07 11:05|| Front Page Top

#4 Meanwhile, about $4.7 billion of the $7.3 billion in stimulus money has been earmarked for "budget relief" -- feeding the city's own payroll and allowing it to continue to fund entitlement programs, such as food stamps.

This does not create jobs! The make-work shovel-ready jobs are at best a temporary stop gap measure. These are not good, long term-jobs that come from a healthy economy. Much like the CCC depression-era jobs with better pay and union benefits.

Posted by JohnQC 2010-09-07 11:11|| 2010-09-07 11:11|| Front Page Top

#5 The trick is that this is another bailout to the states, allowing them to shift internal state funds away from transportation and infrastructure projects and use these dollars, sustaining his union and entitlement allies before the upcoming election.
But Pelosi and Reid are no longer able to push the Congress to spend more, as incumbents are feeling the searingly-white hot anger of the people over spending/borrowing.

Posted by NoMoreBS 2010-09-07 13:44|| 2010-09-07 13:44|| Front Page Top

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