A monopoly can’t be promising news
Anyone who wants proof of the power of competition needs to look no further than the recent bids submitted to the Warren County Highway Department for road paving work.
A more appropriate way to put it would be to say look at the one bid which was submitted.
That’s right. The highway department re-opened bids for its road paving work and received responses from one company. That makes it no surprise that Warren County taxpayers will be paying $11,000 more a mile to pave roads this summer.
It doesn’t matter so much how we have arrived at this point. What matters is that the county has gotten to this point.
If we toss aside all the squabbling that’s taken place between the road department and the county commission and remain completely neutral on the issue of whether either side is right or wrong, one result still remains – the county has only one company submitting bids for its road work.
Gulp ? it’s looks an awful lot like a monopoly. That’s never good when government contracts are involved. It’s especially not good when government contracts involving million dollar paving projects are at stake.
And that’s not to make any insinuations that APAC or the highway department are doing anything wrong. That’s not the point of this editorial.
The point, in very simplistic terms, is that monopolies are bad. Competition is good.
More companies bidding for county road projects means the price for those jobs is naturally going to be lower. It’s not hard to find the lowest bid – or the highest one for that matter – when only one company is involved.
Let’s just say for arguments sake that the current increase Warren County taxpayers will be shelling out for road construction has nothing to do with the fact APAC was the only company to submit a bid. Let’s say the $11,000-a-mile increase is to blame entirely on higher operating costs.
Where does that leave Warren County for next year when APAC realizes its the only dog in the race? You don’t have to run quite so fast to finish in first place when you’re the only one in the race.
If APAC knows it’s going to get the bid year in and year out, with no competition, it’s easy to see how the price for road paving could inch higher and higher. There’s nothing to stop it. There are no other bids. The county is stuck without a choice. We are left with only one option.
Any way you tar it, roll it, and pave it, receiving only one bid for road work is not a good sign for Warren County. It’s us, the taxpayers, who will ultimately pay for this lack of competition.