This is exactly it. Years ago, we did fed work along highways. It became such a boondoggle of attorney fees, and in the end, contract requirements would be changed so much that only certain applicants could ever hope to win them. Guess which applicants those were? Very connected companies owned by cousins, sisters and wives of politicians. We lost bid after bid to companies that were not even in business for 2 years, who had no working capital, no employees, no equipment, etc. They became more or less brokers for fed jobs, who just hired out subs to do the work for pennies on the dollar that they earned.
Also, they never had any risk in the ventures, they don’t purchase equipment, they don’t float loans to buy the materials etc.
It’s a fed feeding trough, and the only ones allowed to belly up to the trough are those who can bribe and kick-back in good fashion.
Needless to say, these companies tend to last about 2 construction seasons here, then they disappear (leaving many holding the bag), but then somehow, another company comes along to take its place, operated by the same people who pulled the first scam.
We got left holding the bag several times on fed and state jobs, we got some reimbursement on fed jobs, but since our state is now basically bankrupt, we lost millions in purchased materials on a few other jobs. We will never get that money back, we are so far down on the list, it just ain’t gonna happen in my lifetime.
The permit process is intended to weed out those who are not willing to “play ball”.
this is one of the reasons the deep state wants to sink trump. correct the permit process and you deprive families like McCain, Bush, Kerry, and gore one of the ways there families are able to enrich themselves at the publics expense.
“...our state is now basically bankrupt...”
Which state, CA ?
“Guess which applicants those were? Very connected companies owned by cousins, sisters and wives of politicians. “
Guess how Paul Pelosi and Richard Blum (Nancy Pelosi’s and Dianne Fineswine’s husbands) became multimillionaires?
I don’t know anything about the permit process but I do know that work on fourlaning a stretch of road near me which is about five miles long has been going on for five years now and is still far from finished. That kind of thing used to be done in three months or so. It has reached the point of absurdity.