president’s message
From the desk of: dave smith
W
elcome to 2020, time to take the deep dive into the challenges and opprortunities it presents.
Labor shortage, I never thought this would come to mind before funding. With the average age of our work force climbing again this year and the lack of young high school and college graduates entering the construction field we are driven to do many things. Technology is great and as we continue to look for ways to perform projects with the assistance of software and apps including virtual reality, 3D imagery and, automation to assist, much more is needed before we simply run out of qualified work forces. These advancements are great as they not only help us perform the work, they also attract the younger generation. This issue is not exclusive to the construction side of the industry. The agencies we work for are having the same issues, attracting new talent is difficult for them too. Making things worse is the limited tools in their war chest to retain such talent and keep them motivated. Ways to retain the most experienced in these agencies must be figured out. Institutional knowledge and simply capable peple that have the desire to get things done are disappearing at an alarming level in the already decimated agencies. We are often critical of the people in the various agencies and holding them accountabe is OK. We need to do more to make sure they actually have that which is needed to perform their work in order for us all to succeed together. Much more focus and action is needed, and our indusrtry recruitment and eductaion efforts need to be doubled down on and further effort and out-reach at the high school level is needed. Funding, this battle is constant and ongoing in both the water/wastewater and transportation sectors! The UTCA is currently involved in a proposal that will impact both sectors regarding the funding for our industry for the next
2 Utility & Transportation Contractor | february | 2020
10 years. One current update on these initiatives relates to the discussion regarding a possible $500 million Bond referendum that may be considered by the Administration and the Legislature to address the lead drinking water crisis in New Jersey. If the Bond Referendum moves forward, the Adminstration and Legislative Leaders may wish to consider using the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank to leverage the funds in order to generate a greater amount of resources that would be available to fund these projects. Also important is all funding initiatives in the future must include an indexing component in order to allow these programs to adjust and account for inflation. Until funding grows automatically to match the economic needs of our infrastructure our industry will suffer from the use of its funding needs as a politcal football. Previous administrations have held back on opportunities to increase funding to the end of their elected terms or just left that issue to be addressed by the next Adminstraiton. The end result is always the same, too little and too late. The aging infrastructure needs and the rising costs end up outweighing the increased funding. The public optics are that not enough is being accomplished with the increase in user fees. This may result in causing addional resistance from the general public in supporting future increases and making the next effort to do so that much tougher. This why fighting for a CPI on every funding source, current and future, is as important as the funding source itself. This has gone on too long and must change now. Best regards,
Dave Smith
