Bowing to Big Labor, Obama Undermines Competitive Bidding

Summary

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On February 6, Mr. Obama signed an executive order overturning an eight-year-old federal policy that has prohibited federal agencies and recipients of federal tax dollars from requiring contractors to sign uniononly "Project Labor Agreements" (PLAs) as a condition for participating in federally funded public works. [...] a 2006 study of publicschool construction projects in the State of New York conducted by two economists affiliated with the Beacon HUl Institute (BHI) at Suffolk University in Boston, Mass., found that "the presence of a PLA increases a project's base construction bids by $27 per square foot (in 2004 prices) relative to nonPLA projects." [emphasis in the original] Since the average cost per square foot of the projects reviewed was $134.71, that means "PLAs raise the base construction bids of building schools by 20%," and the potential savings "from not entering into a PLA on a school construction project range from $2.7 million for a 100,000 square-foot structure to $8.1 million for a 300,000 square-foot structure."

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Bowing to Big Labor, Obama Undermines Competitive Bidding

Barnstorming the country to sell his economic "stimulus" package, for which U.S. taxpayers will ultimately fork over more than a trillion dollars in principal and interest, President Barack Obama incessantly touts the construction job...

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