Michigan's Right-To-Work Legislation Draws Large Protests At Capitol
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I believe everyone in the state of Michigan would want an in-state business to win the contracts and ultimately complete the projects paid by state tax dollars.  The question really comes down to how much you want to pay to see that happen.

The Detroit News is reporting on a state representative that is a co-sponsor of a bill titled “Michigan Jobs First.”

This state Representative is Darrin Camilleri, D-Brownstown Township, who represents Michigan’s 23rd House district.

The Michigan Jobs First bill would give in-state businesses an advantage over out-of-state corporations when bidding for a state contract.  This bill would give these in-state Michigan businesses an 8% financial advantage when bidding for contracts with the state.

What that means is an extra 8% cost to the state of Michigan taxpayers.  For example: if a contract is bid, by an out-of-state company, at $10 million dollars an in-state company can bid $10.8 million and with all other things being equal win that project.  That would end up costing Michigan taxpayers an extra $800,000.

Do you believe this is fair to the taxpayers of Michigan?

Wouldn’t you think that a Michigan based company, from logistics purposes only, could deliver a project cheaper than an out-of-state company and still make the same amount of profit?

What comes into play then is prevailing wage.  If Michigan’s prevailing wage is still enforced then that would more than likely increase the cost of a project to the state from an in-state company because they can no longer pay their people the normal wage they make but must increase it to whatever the union wage is in that area.  Thus giving an advantage to the unionized companies in Michigan and the wallets of the politicians they support.

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