Saturday, January 29, 2011

Porkulus v. the Real World, Internet Version

Woopsie! Porkulus/Big Labor/Obozo rules demolishes budget. Who Coulda Node??

A project in Sauk County to expand high speed Internet access to rural areas is running into problems due to the high costs of bids from contractors.

These roadblocks may show that President Barack Obama’s goal of expanding high speed internet to 98 percent of American residents in the next five years may be hard to achieve, official said.

You'll never guess why, right?

A federal grant to bring broadband to rural areas of northern Sauk County was approved earlier this year. However, the low bid from contractors for the stimulus-funded project is over-budget by $3 million.

Mikonowicz said the problem stems from federal guidelines dictating workers' wages."The problem with it is it's even above the union rates for this area, “said Mikonowicz. “ Say a laborer on a union project may be at $26, $27 an hour. All of sudden, they're bumped up to $44 an hour."

That's more than a FIFTY PERCENT pop.

1 comment:

neomom said...

You could buy everyone an iPad for a whole lot less. But then it wouldn't be a government project.r