September 13, 2005

LANSING – Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today announced that she has signed Executive Directive 2005-6 which amends Executive Directive 2004-3, one of two directives designed to help keep jobs related to state government contracts and services in Michigan.  The amendments add the secondary objective of protecting American jobs. 

The Governor also said that an analysis recently completed by the Department of Management and Budget (DMB) shows that last year’s directives are working.  The analysis found that since the directives took effect, almost 86 percent of state contract dollars have been spent with Michigan firms.
 
“Our goal  is to ensure that Michigan taxpayers are not subsidizing the exporting of jobs,” Granholm said.  “The data shows that we are meeting that goal, so today we are adding additional protections for American jobs to ensure that any money that can’t be spent in Michigan helps businesses and workers in our country.”
 
Executive Directive 2004-2 prohibited state departments and agencies from spending state or federal funds to provide a financial incentive to induce a business located in the United States to relocate out of the country, if shifting production offshore will reduce jobs for U.S. workers. Executive Directive 2004-3 gave preferences to Michigan-based job providers in the state government contracting process and, for the first time, required the DMB to consider whether or not a bidder is engaged in exporting jobs or in using an offshore tax shelter when determining if a bidder’s proposal provides the best overall value to the state.  Both directives took effect on May 1, 2004.

 “Through the outstanding efforts of the Department of Management and Budget, we have been able to provide nearly $3 billion in competitively-bid contracts to Michigan firms.  That’s good news for Michigan workers,” Granholm said.

Granholm cited one of the success stories included in the analysis as an excellent example of what the directives were designed to accomplish.  A Michigan-based certified public accounting firm bid on work after learning about the possibilities through a vendor seminar hosted by DMB.  The company received a $1.1 million contract to perform federally required performance audits for the Department of Community Health.  Previously, the contract had been held by an out-of-state firm.  In addition to bringing the contract home to Michigan, the competitive bid process saved the state $800,000 over the life of the contract.

The directives made Michigan the 25th state to provide for some form of legal preference for in-state bidders or products.  Provisions in Michigan law provided for preferences for Michigan-based businesses bidding to provide goods or services to the state of Michigan, but those provisions had not been actively enforced until Granholm’s directives were put in place.
 
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