Stimulus Money For Perkins Put To Reality Check - NewsOn6.com -...

So you thought all this "free" money had no strings attached...it's just a way of funneling money to their supporters....if you think this is a problem, wait til they get ahold of the healthcare industry!

Scary times ahead

"I thought the stimulus money, I thought that was going to pay for it. I don't understand why we have to pay for it, too," said Robert Allensworth of Perkins.

Thats why you don't have Bubba or Cletus doing the research on these projects! Show some accountability and blame yourself for not throughly researcing this for your town!

What a horrible thing to happen in America! Workers getting paid union wages and steel being manufactured here and not in China!

Nothing ever is for "free" so not too sure why this suprises people.

I can't believe they can't get 1.5 million tax payer dollars and send it to unskilled illegal workers and to china for substandard steel. What is this world coming to?! If they want to take the 1.5 million and spend all of it in China they should be able to do that. With all these strings attached how will this country ever turn around.

so let me get this straight, are the citizens complaining about the extra 400 grand because of the stimulus strings? or about the increased taxes on a 5 million dollar project( a loan by the way for money they did not have in the first place)that they would have had to pay anyways without the stimulus? or about having to pay decent wages to legal citizens and buy american steel?

sounds like now the town is upset because now they have to spend 5.4 million of money they didn't have instead of 5 million. i guess it would have been better to not get the stimulus and be able to keep costs down by buying chinese steel and paying illegal workers. i guess when it comes to keeping construction costs down, illegal workers are not such a bad thing to have around.........interesting.

Your all idiot's,

Don't you realize that the federal money came from your taxes??or will at any rate after were buy our way out of the whole (read that as GRAVE) that Obama and his buddies are putting us in.

Its all a shell game created by some carnival innovator who used to work for Murphy Brothers!!

Nope folks, No free lunch here, You will be taxed at the front and the back door of this attraction.

The free spending liberals in DC want you in theior pocket from cradle to grave. Your dependency will keep them in power for as long as YOU allow it!

Brian,

Who said anything about hiring illegal workers. They said that they would have to hire the more expensive union workers instead of hiring local guys that are already out of a job. A lot of companies in Stillwater have laid off and these people need jobs. They will work for less than the union and they are LOCAL!!!

Makes sense to me to not accept the stimulus money. Too many strings attached.

Using foreign made materials and cut rate wages on projects like this is part of what got our country in this mess in the first place. Tom Coburn needs to admit that and quit criticizing the stimulus package. President Obama is trying to dig us out of a deep hole that Mr. Coburn's party dug us into. You go Perkins.

I'm tired of this 'unions are evil' garbage. If it wasn't for unions you would all be working 80 hours a week for less than minimum wage. Your kids and grandkids would be doing the same.

And no I don't have a union job, never have.

Use local not union? Who says the union guys aren't local too? There's plenty of people that work in oklahoma that are union. Not to mention, the 'local' guy that would get the job would likely be part of the 'good ole boy' network and do a shoddy job.

Do it right for 5.4M or do it cheap for 5M and do it again a few years later.

I am not saying that there was not a time that unions were needed. Now the U.S. has labor laws that protect the worker. All the unions do now is drive up the cost because they demand so much more than the non-union worker.

All I am saying is that there are plenty of people around MY town, Perkins, that need work and they are not union!!

You also don't hear me griping about the fact that my water bill more than doubled last month. I am willing to pay it so that we get the new treatment plant. I am not willing to pay more just because they are using stimulus money. I am all for the requirement that the steel be bought from American steel factories. But, I think that the city should be able to hire the workers that they want to hire, be it union or not, as long as they are legal workers!

I didn't read where they had to hire union workers just had to pay them union wages.

"And, the city must pay all laborers union wages. "

ok tommy now that you've pointed out whats wrong give us the solution. ooh thats rite, you have no advise. no good ideas, not even a suggestion. your sure good at pointing out whats wrong but when it come to contributing any ideas your a mute. a deaf mute

swandive wrote:

Nothing ever is for "free" so not too sure why this suprises people.

That is exactly right! If it sounds too good to be true it usually is.

In Perkins wrote:

Brian,
Who said anything about hiring illegal workers. They said that they would have to hire the more expensive union workers instead of hiring local guys that are already out of a job. A lot of companies in Stillwater have laid off and these people need jobs. They will work for less than the union and they are LOCAL!!!
Makes sense to me to not accept the stimulus money. Too many strings attached.

you are right, it didn't say anything about illegals. but it didn't say anything about "union workers" either. it said "all laborers", so in affect it would be better because the LOCAL guys would be getting paid more right?

This article has so many false statements in it that i am amazed that no one verified their facts. As someone that actually was involved in the Perkins WWTP, i know that the savings to the community of Perkins was substantial. I suggest that News on 6 verify their facts and the report the truth behind this story.

This project had ARRA strings tied to it. This requires all material and equipment be assembled and made in the US.

Wage rates are to be above the Department of Commerce Federal Wage Rates. Not Union wage rates. The Union has nothing to do with it. In Oklahoma, a contractor cannot find people to work below this pay schedule. We pay our people more than they require anyway.

Once again, news on 6 has not verified their facts.