WASHINGTON, June 4 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released
today by the American Consulting Engineers Council: Proposition
224, the "Competition Killer Initiative," was overwhelmingly
defeated by California voters in Tuesday's election.
The initiative, which would have effectively promoted a state
government monopoly on all engineering and architectural design
work, swelling the state bureaucracy and slowing to a crawl hundreds
of public infrastructure projects, was defeated by a 2-to-1 margin.
"California voters have spoken decisively about the preservation
of healthy competition," announced Donald R. Trim, P.E.,
FACEC, president, the American
Consulting Engineers Council (ACEC), which adamantly opposed
Proposition 224. "Californians, like Americans everywhere,
don't want big government; they want better government. This
initiative would have cost people hundreds of millions of dollars
to convert a system that works efficiently to one that essentially
creates more bureaucracy while dramatically slowing the process
of designing and constructing much-needed bridges, highways,
transit, schools, courts, prisons and other public infrastructure."
The initiative, proposed by a California state engineers union,
was opposed by more than 1,000 organizations, including the California
State PTA, League of California Cities, California Teachers Association
and the California Chamber of Commerce, as well as California's
design and construction community.
"Yesterday's landslide victory shows that California's
design professionals do have the political muscle to turn back
irrational and unfair policies," said Charles Randall, president
of the Consulting Engineers and Land Surveyors of California
(CELSOC). CELSOC took the lead to build the "Coalition Against
Proposition 224," when it first surfaced in December 1995.
More than 10,000 separate donations poured in from ACEC firms
and members organizations all over the nation, enabling the coalition
to educate the voters about the real impact of the initiative.
This is not the first time that government has attempted to
usurp private-sector design responsibilities. The U.S. House
of Representatives introduced an amendment similar to Proposition
224 to the FY 1997 Transportation Appropriations bill that was
soundly defeated. Several states also have introduced "competition
killer" initiatives.
"The public knows they get the best value for their tax
dollars when government and the private sector work as a team,
and not as competitors," said Trim. "America's consulting
engineering firms have a long history of working together with
government agencies to design and construct innovative infrastructure.
We hope that this crucial vote will send a strong message to
government entities everywhere: Work with us, not against us."
(Copyright 1998 - American Consulting Engineers Council)