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12/11/2009
You'd think it was Bangladesh or something

More whining about Wisconsin companies not getting the business. I just don’t get it. The world is flatter and flatter (and smaller and smaller) everyday. Roads are paved with concrete, electric light bulbs are the norm and most of us need not endure the inconvenience of outdoor plumbing in our brutal Wisconsin winters. You wouldn't believe it to hear Dan Cody talk about it.

The contract for recently privatized cleaning operations within several Milwaukee County departments has been awarded to “Mid-American Cleaning Contractors” by County Executive Scott Walker.

“Mid-American Cleaning Contractors” is based in Columbus Ohio, not in Milwaukee County or Wisconsin for that matter. If this sounds familiar, it is. Last summer, Walker caught some heat from local businesses for outsourcing his campaign website to… you guessed it, Ohio!

Oh horrors. (Hey, maybe there’s a reason corporations don’t headquarter in Wisconsin…)

Just for the record, the basis for whining about the Milwaukee cleaning contract appears to be pretty obvious – and of course, Midwest Cleaning secured the business fair and square.

Corporation Counsel William Domina told supervisors that the outsourcing was properly handled as a procurement. By including the outsourcing as part of the county's budget, the County Board gave its blessing to the policy change, he said.

Privatization has been a key bone of contention between Walker and the board for years. Walker has continually pushed to shift county jobs to the private sector as a means of controlling costs. The board has frequently resisted those moves, but acquiesced to the custodial outsourcing when faced with a deep 2010 budget shortfall.

The custodial services outsourcing eliminates more than 90 county jobs. County employees will get a chance to apply for jobs with the new contractors, but likely at lower pay and reduced benefits. County housekeepers are paid $10.18 to $14.64 an hour.

The contract for cleaning the Courthouse complex and county offices at 2711 W. Wells St. has been tentatively awarded to Mid-American Cleaning Contractors and will start Jan. 18. Another firm, Wauwatosa-based [Imagine that.] CleanPower, has been tentatively picked for cleaning the Mental Health Complex and juvenile detention center starting Jan. 10.

Fifteen different private cleaning services bid on the county custodial services contracts.

Here’s another catastrophe, from earlier this month.

A portion of [Racine’s] federally funded contract for LED lights will go to a Waukesha company, which bid lower than Ruud Lighting, the local manufacturer.

The City Council voted Tuesday night to award a $243,000 contract to Ruud Lighting for LED lights for storage garages and exterior lighting on city buildings and a $101,000 contract to Spectrum Lighting Ltd, a light distributor in Waukesha.

Spectrum was the lowest bidder for the streetlights, said Richard Jones, the commissioner of public works. The streetlights will be manufactured in Indianapolis, Jones said. [Oh horrors.]

Even though Ruud Lighting is located in Racine, the city is not able to give preference to local companies, Jones said.

Oh my gosh!!! 42.4 miles from Spectrum Lighting to Racine's City Hall. You’d think it was Bangladesh or something.

Update: What if all Italy wanted to do was to "buy local?" Mortrara device lands in Italian ambulances

Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net

COMMENTS

There will always be jobs that can't be outsourced overseas. Unfortunately many of those "stay at home" jobs are jobs like cleaning and fast food preparation. So, an Ohio company hires Wisconsin workers and somewhere a Wisconsin company is hiring Ohio workers. The real danger of outsourcing is when critical items are outsourced and the company or government can't accomplish its prime mission or is held hostage to the outsource contractor.

dave allen (Fri Dec 11 07:09:21 2009)

Dave,

We agree to a certain extent. Outsourcing happens - and in some cases it DOES work out to be 'a wash'. But the more a government interferes with the free trade of a company under its' jurisdiction, and the more onerous the labor costs may be, the less likely that company is to be 'more attractive' in other areas.

I'm a Wisconsin based Widget maker, I charge a fair price for my widgets based on the cost of materials, cost of labor (mine is a union shop), financing, and I build in a profit margin.

Ed has a Florida based Widget making operation. Florida has no income tax and is a right to work state, so his costs are lower. Ed also doesn't have to pay as much for transportation because it's cheaper for trucking companies to come and pick up his shipments there (road taxes are lower).

So even though Ed and I have nearly identical business models, Ed will get the vast majority of the new widget contracts because he's able to put his widgets on the street for less and still make a good profit.

Why would any sane business person pay more when they don't have to?

We're creating that impossible business environment here in Wisco, so the evil corporate behemoths (read: any business owner / manager with a working calculator) will move to greener pastures and our over-taxed union workers will continue to wonder why their beloved unions couldn't force the employer to stay here and endure the abuse.

Yeah, outsourcing happens. And it happens MORE in states like Wisconsin than it does in other places.

Jeff Riedl (Fri Dec 11 10:04:20 2009)

Jeff,
Well if Florida chooses to have crappy schools and can make widgets and sell them here for $.69 that's fine. I'll take Wisconsin's better schools that turn out qualified workers who can make the widget machine and sell it to Floridians for $1mm. So each state to it's own I say. Now that doesn't work for country versus country since the protections we have here for air/water etc. are by and large, for the whole country , not state by state. I have a few friends and professional acquaintances who live here but commute to work on projects outside the state. Building processing plants and the like. So is it better that the skill sets are here and can go anywhere or is it better the plant is here and the skill sets here? Or is it better that the plant is here and the skill sets elsewhere? That's not a simple question. As you point out, the market will settle it out to some degree. I like it here in Wisconsin and although I have my battles with government and don't like paying taxes I have lived in other states (NY and AZ) and I wouldn't trade us (warts and all) for them any day.

dave allen (Fri Dec 11 16:11:06 2009)

MPS is the biggest drain on this state. Don't spout off about how great the schools are here w/o discussing the failure of MPS. And with largest number of students just being passed so they could stay with their peers, I really have a difficult time on believing we have great schools here.

Doug (Fri Dec 11 20:42:17 2009)

Doug,
You're missing the forest. It is not the Milwaukees (or Miamis) of this country that define each state's or region's overall performance. Wisconsin on average, has a high literacy rate, excellent technical skills, excellent work ethic, low crime, access to excellent water resources, good transportation systems etc. Florida's economy has collapsed in part because it was based on sunshine and the related demographic changes related to sunshine. I have talked to business leaders and listened to business leaders who operate interstate. Their decision making processes are not based on one factor alone. It is the totality of benefits that count. To assume that taxes alone or "regulations" alone however measured is the reason why companies relocate is dismissive of the complicated decisions executives must make. In fact, the states that have the most personal wealth per capita are not the lowest tax states, they are by in large the states with higher taxes. How does that figure?

dave allen (Sat Dec 12 08:24:35 2009)

Dave, work ethic is NOT taught in schools but in the HOME. As to right-to-work states, they have the fastest-growing economies. While WI, with the highest per capita budget in the US, is a welfare magnet.

I have met numerous people who moved here from other states, to sit around and collect. One couple even had their own business, but sold it and moved to WI.

When Cap n Trade is passed, WI will be further crippled, as our manufacturing base depends on fossil fuels, and it costs money to keep a facility heated in winters here (which, BTW, are getting longer and colder--we're in for at least a 10-year cooling cycle, according to latest studies from UW-Madison, and German Universities.) So I'd predict that more companies may indeed be looking for other places to set up business.

emily matthews (Sat Dec 12 21:43:07 2009)

Emily,
it certainly is the best if parents are the active role models for proper behavior. However, kids get role models from various places. We can no more rely on the parents exclusively for a work ethic than we can rely on parents to home school their own children. It is true job growth is higher in sunshine states but there are lots of factors involves in that and a lot of debate of what jobs. Texas for example has a relatively low unemployment rate and so does Vermont. But having a fair amount of experience with both states I'd choose Vermont. maybe you'd like Texas. As far as cap and trade, please look at the following link from Google Maps that shows the coastal flooding that will occur as sea levels rise.http://www.mibazaar.com/nationundersiege/. You are worried about cap and trade impact on economic growth. Please consider for a moment the economic impact of direct flooding on many of our major cities (imagine a Katrina like impact happening frequently). Do you think that cap and trade is the bigger economic impact ? Please consider the loss of fresh water supplies in Florida. Please consider the loss of the Everglades . The list goes on and on. What is your solution?

dave allen (Sun Dec 13 07:55:09 2009)

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