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The Gangbox - Assorted news and notes

Date Posted: February 20 2004

More money for Michigan? Maybe. Michigan may be in line to get an increase in federal transportation funding, and at a rate faster than other states. But there are two big strings attached.

As we have noted in the past, Michigan is a currently a “donor” state when it comes to transportation funding, receiving only 88 cents on each tax dollar sent to the federal government in taxes.

According to the Construction Labor Report, based on figures compiled by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, highway funding is expected to increase 35 percent over the next six years, and all states are expected to eventually get 95 percent return on their money.

But Michigan is among the handful of states that are expected to get the 95 percent rate of return with the first year of funding, while other states will have to wait to get to that level. Faster growing states in the South and West will have to wait a little longer to get to the 95 percent level.

The strings that are attached to the plan are held by the Senate, where the legislation is bogged down, and by President Bush, who has vowed to use his veto pen because he feels the transportation plan costs too much.

Help restore funding fairness. Michigan Hardhats can help move the transportation spending issue along by logging on to www.fundingfairness.com. There you can enter your Zip Code and e-mail your member of Congress, urging him or her to support funding fairness for transportation construction.

Michigan currently ranks 47th in the nation in terms of rate of return for highway funding, and a coalition of labor, management, politicians and business groups have formed the Michigan Transportation Team and started up the website in an effort to get more bang for the buck when it comes to highway spending in Michigan.

A mean form of tailgating. You’ve heard of stolen hub caps. You’ve heard of stolen air bags. Now, at least one thief has moved on to stealing pickup truck tailgates.

Mike Renaud, an IBEW electrician, walked out of the Ford Wixom plant where he was working on a construction project late last month and discovered the tailgate stolen from his two-year-old Dodge Ram. His pickup was parked not far from a guard shack in the employee parking lot.

“I’m running into people who are saying the same thing happened to them,” he said. “I heard there were a bunch taken one morning at the Wixom plant, and another six in one morning at the Ford Wayne plant. “They were taken from Fords, Chevys, whatever. I know air bags can be a hot item for thieves, but I never heard of tailgates being stolen. I just wanted to make the brothers aware of what’s going on.”

Det. Sgt. Jim Osborne of the Wixom Police Department confirmed Renaud’s account, and said that there were 13 tailgates stolen on a single day at the Ford Wixom plant, and “multiple” tailgates taken in Wayne. He checked around and found no other similar incidents in other areas.

“The only real common denominator is that it happened at two different Ford plants,” Osborne said. “I find it extremely odd, I have never heard of tailgates as a high-theft item. If this is going to be a trend, we’re right at the start.”

Homebuilding hot, other areas not. It’s difficult to believe given the lackluster state of Michigan’s construction economy, but U.S. construction activity advanced three percent in 2003 over the year before, according to McGraw-Hill Construction, which tracks these things. That rate of growth was better than anticipated.

The continuing boom in single-family housing construction led the charge – but that building sector has been dominated by nonunion contractors for decades.

“The overall level of construction activity was quite healthy during 2003, thanks to the robust volume of single-family housing,” said Robert A. Murray, vice president of economic affairs for McGraw-Hill Construction, on Jan. 29. “At the same time, it was a different picture for construction’s other sectors.”

Contractors who weren’t building houses were hurting, as nonresidential building dropped three percent in the U.S. in 2003.

Murray said a “tough fiscal climate” in 2003 “dampened” institutional building, and caused public works to “lose momentum after four straight years of expansion.” He said commercial building may be turning the corner after a weak 2003.

“Moving into 2004,” he said, “continued growth for total construction will require more broad-based improvement from commercial building, since it’s expected that single family housing will ease back from its exceptional 2003 pace.”