Contracting Out Work vs. Performance By Government Employees

Should government agencies be permitted to contract work out to the private sector, or should work be required to be performed by public employees?  It's a fairly common tension in many states with different interests at stake:

• Unions generally favor having public employees perform work and often promote legislation to prohibit certain work from being contracted out.
  
  
• Contractors favor having as much work as possible put out for open competitive bidding, and oppose attempts to raise bid limit thresholds that permit more work to be done by government employees..
  
  
• Government agencies generally favor flexibility in figuring out how to accomplish the work, and seek to raise bid limits, the amount at which they are required to seek competitive bids.

In Washington state, legislation approved in 2009 increased the bid limits for a variety of types of government agencies.  ESSB 1847 increased many thresholds that had not been increased for years.

A new bill just introduced in the Nebraska Legislature would allow contracting out for work on personal service contracts of $50,000 or more, only if the private sector was at least 10% cheaper than having the work performed by state employees. The Nebraska Legislative Bill 980 was introduced on January 19, 2010.