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approx. 4 years ago the town I live in put its garbage rte out to bid. the reason was mainly workers comp. you see unlike many of the municipalities who went with the new vehicles that have only a driver(who seldom has to get out of the truck)hence stopping all the repetitive heavy lifting. well needless to say the costs have increased to the point that we pay for our bags. you see its a proven fact that private always raises costs;except for the low ball initial contract. you see I base this conclusion on more than speculation, in my younger day I bid more than one municipal contract. AND I also designed and built more than one street with municipal employees. the last one was approx 3/4 of a mile which was put out to bid,the lowest bid was over $250,000. this included 12" gravel base,3" pavement and new culverts. we done it for less than $100,000! the difference= the employees that built it got benefits like sick leave,retirement,vacation. but their was no profit!there was piece of equipment setting on the project unused and being charged at an hourly rate.their was no entity charging the contractor a bloated fee for equipment. you know the shell game they play to avoid taxes and raise costs. I love to hear these think we know state their myths, the fact is most non-union contractors bid as much as union contractors on projects
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