On April 25^th, ABC of Michigan will be relocating our existing office from 120 N. Washington in downtown Lansing to our new location:

230 N. Washington

Suite 202

Lansing, MI 48933

We are conveniently located only one block north of the current office with metered parking available on two sides of the building (on Washington Square and Ionia Street).  Also, the building backs up to the North Grand Parking Ramp (the same ramp used at the old office) for additional parking.

The spacious and newly remodeled location offers both a large and small conference room along with a visitor's office that will be available for guests to use.  All meetings (committee and board) will be held at the new office starting April 29^th unless otherwise notified.

We look forward to moving into our new office and hope you will enjoy the added benefits!  Please look for a moving notice in the mail that will have our new address and phone numbers and remember to update your records on April 25^th!

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On April 14, Chris Fisher, ABC of Michigan president, sat down one-on-one with Governor Snyder to discuss his budget and tax reform plan that was unanimously supported by ABC's 2011 Board of Directors. 

"We believe the governor and legislative leaders have crafted a fair and long overdue plan that will make Michigan more competitive and help grow our state's struggling economy," says Fisher.

The Governor, Lt. Governor Brain Calley, House Speaker Jase Bolger, and Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville announced their commitment to the new tax reform plan.  Some of the highlights include:

• Ending the current double taxation on LLCs and "S" Corporations
• A simple, flat percent Corporate Income Tax on "C' Corporations
• Small business, partnerships, sole proprietorships, limited liability corporations, "S" corporations, etc. will pay a 4.35% tax on business profits under the individual income tax.

"I believe it's a great solution and that it will encourage job growth and that's where I'm hoping you will be out hiring people, getting more people building things," states Governor Snyder.  "We appreciate the support of your membership.  It's a great group."

You may now view that exclusive one-on-one discussion with Governor Snyder by clicking here.  We urge you to contact your lawmakers and encourage them to support the comprehensive tax reform as agreed to by Governor Snyder, Lt. Governor Brian Calley, House Speaker Jase Bolger, and Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville.  Michigan's future is at stake.

In testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, Associated Builders and Contractors member Thomas Mistick, principal of Church Restoration Group, Cranberry Township, Pa., stated that the Davis-Bacon Act, as administered by the U.S. Department of Labor, "hinders economic growth, increases the federal deficit; and imposes an enormous paperwork burden on both contractors and the federal government."  Mistick spoke at the hearing "Examining the Department of Labor's Implementation of the Davis-Bacon Act."

"The clear answer to the problems created by this fatally flawed and unfixable system is to repeal the Davis-Bacon Act and let the market set acceptable wage rates through open and competitive bidding," Mistick said.

Mistick's testimony followed the April 6 release of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that found the U.S. Department of Labor's (DOL) Davis-Bacon wage survey process suffers from a lack of transparency in how the published wage rates are set and contains data errors regarding the number of employees and hourly and fringe benefit rates.

"The main reason the Davis-Bacon Act causes so many problems is that the Department of Labor has failed to achieve the act's stated objective of determining true 'prevailing' wages and instead has repeatedly issued wage determinations that are vastly inflated above the true market rates seen on private sector construction projects," he said.

"The GAO report stated that more than 'one-quarter of the final wage rates for key job classifications were based on wages reported for six or fewer workers,'" Mistick said. "The report cited insufficient resources with which to complete the surveys, the inability to provide all information requested, and a justifiable lack of confidence in the DOL's process as contributing factors.

"At a time of shrinking public construction budgets, the Davis-Bacon Act's fundamentally flawed system is arbitrarily limiting the amount of construction that can be built by needlessly increasing project costs.  Jobs have been lost, businesses have closed and taxpayers are getting four buildings for the price of five because of this broken process," Mistick said.

The Davis-Bacon Act is an 80-year-old wage subsidy law administered by the U.S. Department of Labor that mandates "prevailing" wages for employees of contractors and subcontractors performing work on federally financed construction projects.

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