It's time to protect public construction

By Mike Fabishak

Fabishak In case you've been on an island for the last month and missed it, there is a message for our state's construction industry coming loud and clear through the election-year hoopla.

Based on the fallout from the Sept. 14 statewide primary election, we can now count on the Legislature getting serious about government spending and property-tax limitations. Yes, we've all heard that before.

Didn't the Legislature spend most of last session defining the problem but doing little about it?

But before we dismiss this threat, consider that only two incumbents lost in the legislative primary election.

The defeats of Sen. Mary Panzer and State Rep. Michael Lehman, both Republicans, have been attributed to their less-than-wholehearted support of the constitutional amendment known as The Taxpayer Bill of Rights. That kind of outcome has a way of making believers out of colleagues who weren't in a big hurry to take spending decisions out of the hands of elected officials.

Panzer's replacement as Senate majority leader, Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, and Assembly Speaker John Gard jointly announced a legislative agenda for January and the "First 100 Days." At the top of the list is a three-year, property-tax freeze that could be exceeded or lifted only by a local referendum. TABOR hasn't been forgotten, but since it is a constitutional amendment and must be passed by two successive sessions of the Legislature and a statewide referendum, the earliest it could become effective would be April 2007.

Also consider that the Milwaukee-area taxpayers group most often associated with public-official recalls and property-tax freezes is expanding statewide.

So what's the message for construction? It's that we need to differentiate public-building programs and capital improvements from the government operational expenditures that are the targets of TABOR and the
property-tax freeze proposals.

Construction spending is fundamentally different from other government outlays, beginning with the direct stimulus effect it has on the local and state economies. The state estimates that every $1 million spent on building creates 30 new jobs, 15 of which are outside of construction. In addition, approximately 85 percent of government spending is for salaries and benefits.

We have the arguments, and we can make the case, as we successfully did two years ago when the state faced a record $3.2 billion deficit, and major cuts to the building program were looming. If we fail to make the case, we could be looking at a scenario where every building project or borrowing decision not under the expenditure limit would have to be submitted to a vote.

The only assumption that's built into this legislative outlook is that Republicans will maintain control of both houses of the Legislature after the Nov. 2 general election. What the governor would do with legislation of this kind is certainly open to conjecture. He already vetoed one property-tax freeze during his tenure. This time, it would be closer to the 2006 re-election and the certainty that another veto would become an issue against him.

I am calling on my colleagues in construction-trade associations and our associates to join us in the months ahead. Wisconsin has improved its tax ranking but remains high in terms of state and local burden. Still, we must convince our legislators not to jeopardize our infrastructure, so vital to the economy and our attractiveness as a state, while they try to fix another problem. We don't need to wait for the outcome of the election or the start of the legislative session. The debate is coming, and we need to start framing the discussion on our terms.

To those in our industry who don't participate directly in public construction and don't think they will be affected, I would only say imagine the increased competition in your own markets if public-sector construction dried up as a result of misdirected legislation.

Mike Fabishak has been the executive vice president of the Associated General Contractors of Greater Milwaukee Inc. for the past five years and serves on several boards and councils where he advocates for the construction industry.