Sen. Bonham: Kotek’s war on taxpayers, housing, transportation

The Governor’s war on taxpayers, housing, transportation and more
By Oregon State Senate Republican Leader,

Recent reports show that our state is forecasted to be short of our housing construction goals, even for decades to come.

Which the begs the question on why Kotek, the nation’s most unpopular governor, signed an executive order on Dec. 19 mandating public labor agreements for state contracts. These public labor contracts include mandated union participation for contractors, diversity quotas for minority hiring and required equity tracking.

There are so many problems with this action, but to name a few:

– This is a blatant abuse of power – something this overarching should be debated by the Legislature to get broader feedback and debate, not unilaterally decided by an unpopular Governor who only received 47% of the vote.

– PLA’s make projects more expensive – PLAs limit the amount of people able to bid on contracts, reduce negotiating power and inflate costs. Projects report up to 21% added costs due to PLAs.

– This will devastate local and smaller contractors – PLAs wipe out emerging competition, due to small companies not being able to compete with the costs associated with the requirements. Taking out small business contractors monopolizes the market and ensures rising costs to taxpayers.

Further, with our growing transportation budget shortfall – this order will be devastating to transportation projects.

This is not how you head into a new year. The careless disregard for the democratic process, will of the voters and consideration of small businesses is unsettling. The lack of transparency around this order is also problematic. It calls into question who the Governor is trying to represent – her voters or politically connected special interests?