I asked the Comptroller for figures on the total value of contracts for services held by state agencies in Massachusetts. The Comptroller provided figures for fiscal years dating back to 2003.
In FY 2003, the total value of state contracted services was $8.62 billion (that’s billion, with a “b”). By FY 2009, that figure had risen to $11.46 billion, a 33 percent increase.
That’s quite a bit of ongoing privatization for a state that “effectively ended” privatization in the 1990s and has “virtually outlawed” it since.
All of which leads me to ask the question: is the continuing chorus of calls for the repeal of the Pacheco Law — from gubernatorial candidates to newspaper columnists and think tanks — based on facts or based on ideology?
Please share widely!
I am betting that much of it is in urban areas.
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p>The gripe towns and rural areas have is that they must pay Boston Union wages on these contracts, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars more than a more local median wage. Also, unless a small business can depend on MANY jobs, the certification process isn’t worth it. It’s why you see so many trucks from Brookline on jobs in Leominister.
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p>Interesting side effect? In Barnstable and Bristol counties, many painting and manintenance jobs in town facilities are done by prisoners instead of small businesses. But that isn’t exactly privitization.
But these billions of dollars in contracts don’t even take into account local work, they are strictly state agency contracts. There may be differences geographically in where the money gets spent; but my main point is that the Pacheco Law doesn’t appear to be standing in the way of contracting in Massachusetts, despite all the claims to the contrary.
There are no trucks from Brookline, unless they’re from Brookline Coal & Ice. Brookline!?!
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p>I know of exactly three contractors based in Brookline — Atlantic HVAC, Lasky carpentry, and Lockwood Construction. Drive around Brookline and check out the names on the side of the F250s — be they trades, landscaping, or whatever — they’re all from 128-land or New Hampshire.
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p>Not Chelsea nor Quincy nor Everett nor Revere nor Malden, but Brookline!??!