• Tweet
• Share
• Email
• Print

Highway Robbery. That's what some call it. The I-Team found local lawmakers and business leaders sick and tired of our money heading out of state.

We're talking about millions of dollars in stimulus money meant to make Wisconsin companies stronger, rebuild the local economy, and put people back to work.

"There's a real opportunity to grow businesses here in Wisconsin," said State Senator Jeff Plale, (D) South Milwaukee, who sits on the Senate's Transportation Committee.

When the Wisconsin Department of Transportation put the $60 million mega-project to rebuild of Interstate 94 through Kenosha County -- the road, the bridges, overpasses, and exit ramps -- out for bid last spring, local contractors stepped up to the plate.

"I know a lot of them were swinging very hard for it," said Terry McGowan, Business Manager for International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 139.

A potentially huge pay-day, and a huge chunk of the nearly $400 million in stimulus money the feds set aside for transportation projects in Wisconsin.

"That is the big one," McGowan said. "That was the big prize."

A gold medal gig for the lowest bidder, but the way things went down, the competition left Wisconsin contractors wearing silver at best.

Most of the workmen and equipment operators on the project are from Wisconsin, but the company that's paying them isn't from Wisconsin, and doesn't pay taxes in Wisconsin.

Turns out, every Wisconsin company that bid on the job, got low-balled by Walsh Construction, a massive, national operation based in Chicago.

"They have advantages that we don't have and can bring those to the table and bid cheaper that we can," explained Dan Zignego. Zignego Ready Mix was one of the three Wisconsin contractors whose bid came up short. The family's Waukesha-based construction business has built roads here for more than 50 years.

"As a contractor that bid on that job, and would have liked that contract, we always look at it if we can't have it, we sure hope that one of our in-state competitors gets it," Zignego said.

Because when out-of-state companies get our state's biggest jobs, even when they hire Wisconsin workers, union boss Terry McGowan says it's killing Wisconsin contractors in an economy that's already lousy.

"If our employers don't have work right now, and two years from now they go broke or they go out of business, we're all looking for work," McGowan said.

By then, companies like Walsh have already been paid, packed up their shovels, and gone back over the border with all those jobs.

"That is not stimulating the local economy," Plale argued. "There ought to be folks from the administration saying, 'Hey, if you're going to work here, you really need to establish a presence here. You need to open an office here. You need to become a Wisconsin company. You need to pay Wisconsin taxes in addition to hiring Wisconsin workers.'"

Maybe most frustrating for everyone, the difference between Walsh's low bid and the lowest Wisconsin bidder was just 1%.

"Don't think it's because we weren't bidding it as competitively as we could, because that wouldn't be true," Zignego said.

What is true: in tough times, the competition for Wisconsin's mega road projects is tougher than ever, and pressure from out-of-state big boys like Walsh, with their sights set here, is a game changer.

"All our guys are going to have to do is sharpen their pencils up a little bit," McGowan said.

To make sure that every dollar that's meant for Wisconsin stays in Wisconsin.

The I-Team wanted to get Walsh's take on all this, but our repeated phone calls and emails went unanswered.

Keep in mind, though, this does go both ways. Wisconsin contractors are free to bid on big Illinois jobs, but they haven't landed any, yet. If it's any consolation, we did find a couple big jobs down there being done by companies from Iowa.