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1. The American Jobs Act [AB2] would stop state dollars from going to contracts with companies that ship our jobs overseas to other countries.

2. The Wisconsin First [AB1] legislation would require state government to spend at least 5 percent of its annual procurement budget on Wisconsin-based businesses and increase this level each year. This means investing our tax dollars where they should be — clearly supporting Wisconsin businesses and Wisconsin workers.

… the actual cost to state agencies of expanding the preference to Wisconsin-based businesses is indeterminate.

AB1 provides that state agencies shall attempt to ensure that at least 2 percent of state purchasing is with companies domiciled in Wisconsin; in future years, the percentage must not be lower than the preceding year. [Wow.] The State of Wisconsin does not own or manage a procurement system that tracks purchasing transactions by the state domicile of its vendors. In order to track spending with Wisconsin firms, agencies will be required to implement new procedures or technologies, such as manual review, WISMART system upgrades or implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that includes a procurement module that tracks vendor state domicile. The costs of these changes are indeterminate.

The Department of Administration does not track service locations for centrally managed contracts…. Nevertheless, the department estimates that the majority of direct services are provided by US based workers. However, there is a growing national trend for large IT and banking organizations to subcontract for call center, programming, and back-office services. In general the following types of cost increases would occur as the result of this bill:

1.The lowest bidder may not be awarded the contract.
2. Increased time to review all subcontracts to determine if the work is performed in the U.S. at the time of award and throughout the life of the contract.
3.Time and cost of lengthening the administrative procurement process to assess these factors.

In addition to the above, Wisconsin is currently a signatory to the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement (WTOGPA). Under this agreement, preferences in favor of the United States must be eliminated from all contracts over a certain threshold. The provisions of this bill could put the State in violation of this agreement.

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