The Prince George’s County Council is considering legislation that would heavily favor local businesses when county agencies determine how and where to spend their budgets. The “Jobs First” act, proposed by Councilman Mel Franklin, D-Accokeek, and Councilwoman Andrea Harrison, D-Bladensburg, sets ambitious goals for county agencies to spend contracts on Prince George’s County-based businesses, rather than on companies outside the county’s borders.
Since 2008, only 12 percent of the county’s $1.3 billion in procurement spending has gone to county businesses, according to officials.
“This is designed to ensure that our local tax contractors, of which there are many, are given a priority opportunity to compete for work,” Franklin said. “If those tax dollars aren’t circulating in our county, they’re not working as well for us.”
Few county businesses are paid for county services because of the level of distrust local businesses have in Prince George’s, a relationship Franklin said he hopes the bill will help repair.
Under the proposal, 40 percent of all county contracts exceeding $100,000 or more must be spent on local businesses. Contracts $100,000 or less would be restricted exclusively to small local businesses.
Contractors must prove they made their “best efforts” to ensure that at least 51 percent of their workforce are Prince George’s residents, or risk losing bids or being fined by the county.
Current contracts with businesses in neighboring counties and cities would not be affected. But as contracts expire, the bill would favor replacing those companies for new deals with county businesses.
“The bottom line is they can and they should make sure that they have participation for those folks within Prince George’s County that they want to have employed,” said Shirley Thompson, executive director of the Maryland Minority Contractors Association.
Restricting the bidding process to county-based business could drive up costs, Franklin admitted. But the benefit to Prince George’s tax revenue should dwarf the pricier contracts.
“If a county business is getting larger and getting more contracts, that’s going to benefit the county because they’ll be paying more local tax dollars,” Franklin said. “All of that creates a multiplier effect for those local taxpayer dollars.”
Oakland, Calif., officials created similar goals and saw their expenses rise by about $9 million annually. But by spending the money within the city and boosting Oakland business, the city saw its tax revenue increase by $144 million annually, Franklin said.
The bill also establishes a county-funded hiring program to help contractors find unemployed and low-income Prince George’s residents eligible for work, aiding contractor efforts to make a good faith effort to hire locally.
