On Friday (10/21), New York Governor George Pataki
vetoed a bill which would have required NY State to disclose how much it spends on private consultants. Public employee unions in NY like the
Public Employees Federation pushed this bill hard, making good arguments that Pataki has
privatized about 10% of the NY State public workforce during his 11 years in office. These private consultants can cost anywhere from 30% to 500% more than public employees who mostly do the same kinds of work - clearly a bad deal for the taxpayer.
The folks actually working for the private consulting firms don't take home that much more pay than the public employee - the rest gets sucked up by the firm owners as profits. And some of those nice profits make their way back to Republican candidates like George Pataki by way of campaign donations. It's "pay to play" clear and simple - using taxpayer dollars. The bill that was vetoed wouldn't have stopped this pay to play - but it would have made it much easier to track.
On September 7, 2005, President Bush, citing a "national emergency," issued a proclamation suspending the Davis-Bacon Act in the areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.
The Davis-Bacon Act (passed in 1931) is federal law which established the requirement for paying "prevailing wages" on public works projects. All federal government construction contracts and most contracts for federally assisted construction over $2,000 must include provisions for paying workers on-site no less than the "locally prevailing wages" and fringe benefits paid on similar projects.
While Davis-Bacon does not require federal work to be done by union members, it does require the federal contractors to pay a living wage with all that federal (taxpayer) money. In short, contractors like KBR or Halliburton can't pay crap wages and suck up all that federal contract money as profits. Some in Kosotopia are licking their chops at this reckless Bush action and are pointing to the 37 somewhat pro-labor Republican Congressfolks who may now be even more vulnerable for '06 with yet another issue for their Dem opponents to beat them with. While this may be a good political weapon, in the meantime more working people suffer, get paid crap, and can't pay their bills while KBR and Halliburton get richer and richer on taxpayer dollars (your dollars).
And... the assault by the GOP on working families continues.