What’s Vermont got?

State firms cry foul over stimulus projects

KALISPELL – Across the nation, local firms can expect to lose billions of economic stimulus dollars to large multinational corporations, thanks to a government contracting scheme that puts paperwork speed ahead of community recovery.

In Montana, that means qualified building firms are out of the loop, while many millions in federal construction funding will go to a California company that recently earned a stern rebuke for its failures in Iraq – a war-profits scandal that cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

“It’s a farce,” said Dewey Swank of Kalispell’s Swank Enterprises. “It stinks of politics and big special interests.” [snip]

For stimulus to stimulate, Richardson said, it needs to reach all parts of the economy, and not just a few multinational firms. [snip]

But as the IDIQ process becomes increasingly entrenched in recovery act projects, the trend is clearly toward locals losing to large mega-corporations.

Federal data show that job orders made through pre-existing IDIQ contracts (as opposed to individually bidding jobs) grew from 14 percent of total dollars spent in 1990 to 52 percent in 2005, and it’s growing faster than ever now that the stimulus puts priority on speed.

Speed is important, Tester said, but local firms must have the opportunity to compete if the jobs bill is to have its intended effect.

This jobs bill is having its intended effect. Channeling large sums of money to those firms that will donate to the proper political individuals is the purpose of the stimulus program.

The Richmond Bridge renovation here went to a Maine company. Do we have any company in Vermont that can do this type of work?

Or did they all leave to avoid Vermont’s tax grab.