State Employees’ Measure on Bids

Bruce Blanning, executive director of the pro-Prop. 224 campaign, insists that the proposition’s proposed bidding “cannot be rigged” in favor of the state employees union (April 27). He states that private contractors can bid whatever they want. These statements are false.

Private sector bids must include all direct costs plus indirect costs, such as employee benefits, payroll taxes, rents, utilities, insurance, etc. The state employees union must only include the direct salary cost of a new employee hired by the state to do the work included in their bid. If a new employee is not required, the state’s bid can be $0.

This is not competitive bidding. It is “rigged bidding.” Prop. 224 will guarantee tax increases to pay for the added costs incurred. Prop. 224 guarantees an increased bureaucracy that cannot be held accountable, nor liable, for its own negligent acts. We taxpayers will pay for the mistakes generated by this one-sided, “rigged” bidding system.

JOHN W. McMURRAY, Laguna Beach

*

Virtually all of school construction would be impacted by Prop. 224. That is why more than 100 school districts, the California State PTA and hundreds of teachers across the state are opposed to it.

Prop. 224, sponsored by Caltrans bureaucrats, would increase the size of the state bureaucracy and and increase taxpayer costs. They’ve disguised 224 as a competitive bidding initiative. It would do just the opposite. They rigged the system in Prop. 224 to eliminate government contracts with private sector engineers and architects. Prop. 224 would shift 15,600 private sector jobs onto the public payroll at a taxpayer cost of $1.7 billion a year.

The California Taxpayers Assn. and more than a dozen taxpayer groups oppose Prop. 224. They are joined by business and labor, Republicans and Democrats, schools, law enforcement, cities and counties. Vote no on 224.

PHYLLIS PAPEN, Former Mayor, Diamond Bar