Local Preference Bidding A Good Move For County

Kudos to the Highlands County Commission for approving - at least in theory - local contractors getting preference in bidding for goods and services contracts. Final wording changes are needed before the rules are changed.

Under the proposal, local businesses would get contracts over out-of-town vendors as long as the dollar percentage over the out-of-town bid is within a certain range. The range changes depending on the total dollar cost.

County commissioners wanted wording tweaked to make sure local businesses had preference, but not at the cost of taxpayers paying too much. Mike Secor, president of the Highlands County Builders Association, also asked that "local" means businesses that have been in operation for two years or more. This makes sense, because if it's known that bids will be taken on a major contract, out-of-town firms could, and probably would, open a storefront just to get the preference.

When making final adjustments to the rules, it's also a good time to make sure that even local companies that bid for this county business also follow suit by hiring local subcontractors. All of that must be considered when awarding bids to companies.

We want our local businesses, contractors and subcontractors to have a fair bidding process, and not be automatically knocked out by out-of-town firms that hire employees who may or may not be legal and are willing to work for much less than a fair wage. Some of these companies might not do as good of work as local companies who know their names are on the line for shoddy workmanship.

Of course, taxpayers can't be footing the bill to subsidize local businesses if there is a big price differential, but that can be solved in the final wording of the rule.

Many counties in Florida, and the rest of the country for that matter, have regulations that give preference to local companies bidding on business. They vary a great deal, but we believe this idea is a winner.