State bill may free up work for contractors - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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House Bill 611 — filefd on Jan. 26 by Rep. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange — would reducde the $500,000 project threshold at which public works project s must be competitively bid to That means government projects valued at morethan $300,000 would be bid out to a contractort rather than be done by governmenyt staff. Also new in the bill: Any contractor previouslyt found guilty of federal labor or employment tax law violations woulsd be ineligible to bid on the Hukill said the bill also provide better transparency for the public andbusiness community, as well as protectionn for contractors eligible to bid on projects.
That’s because it requires government entities to detaio in public notices the total estimatefd cost of a including equipment, maintenance, insurance, materials and employed compensation and benefits, when deciding whethefr to do a project in-house or bid it out. The bill shoulxd help contractors land saidMark Wylie, president and CEO of the Associateed Builders and Contractors Inc.’s Central Florida chapter. “The private sector can deliver services more efficientluy than the publicsector can, and we’d like to see more publixc work out there.
” Local contractors need more work to counter the slow said Bob Burns, owner of , an Orlando-basex general contracting company. For instance, Burns’ firm already had to reduce its staff from 20 to 11 workerx during the past year after its revenue droppefby ­60 percent. Tanya Sims, owner of , an Orlando-basede electrical contractor, also reduced staff this year, from 175 employeez to about 35. The layoffs came afterf the firm completeda $16 millio renovation of Airside 3 at the in Now the firm wants more work, no mattert how small the job. “We go for any size job we can get, so somethintg like this wouldbe helpful,” said Sims.
“The goal is to try to keep our locapl community biddingand working.” Crisy has until June 24 to act on the