At any recent gathering of general contractors, a common theme has been that they are being presented with plans that are so incomplete and improperly drawn that the project would be unbuildable. Yet, so many are hungry for work, that they bid the job with the hopes of coming to a reasonable resolution with the [...]
Despite how the Fed or the Congress spends our money, it is a real law of economics that every nation has a limited amount of money. You may or may not be impressed at how much a country has, but for everyone, it is limited. In beginning economics, we learned if a country spent more [...]
In case you haven’t heard, there are big things happening at the Panama Canal. It is being made deeper and wider. If you understand the country and the terrain, that is not as simple as it sounds. Not surprisingly, it is taking the contractor longer than he first thought to complete the project. Not surprisingly, [...]
Effective February 12, 2014 the SBA Quick App increased the limit on Liquidated Damages from $250 a day to $1,000 a day! In addition, jobs with two year maintenance terms are now eligible in the program. These improvements to the program will allow more contractors to bid on jobs that never would have been [...]
Be on the lookout, our first newsletter of 2014 will be hitting the streets soon! This newsletter will touch on Florida's economic outlook, tax changes, and flexible surety bond programs. Feel free to call or email us to make sure you're on our mailing list so you don't miss out.
On January 1st, 13 states raised their minimum wage. The Federal minimum wage is still $7.25 per hour. Florida has raised its minimum wage to $7.93. Florida is one of 21 states to have a higher state minimum wage than the federal requirement. It is expected that as many as 14 more states will follow [...]
According to a recent report in USA Today, most of the largest companies in the US are self-insured. They cover their employee’s claims while insurance companies help administer the plans. Starting in 2014, those businesses that are fully-insured, as opposed to self-insured, will have to pay a tax that is expected to add about 2% [...]
It has been slow so long we didn’t think it would ever pick up. Get ready for things to change. McGraw Hill Construction is forecasting that contract activity in the Southeast region will achieve an across the board increase within each of its broad construction categories: Nonresidential, residential. and nonbuilding. The acceleration is expected to [...]
Since the late 1990’s the Veteran’s Administration has been using reverse auctions as a contracting process to promote competition by having the agency buyer solicit bids from multiple sellers. This is different from a standard auction where a seller solicits bids from multiple buyers. In a reverse auction, you keep lowering and lowering your price [...]
Florida Surety Bonds feels it's important to give back to the community as much as possible, even more so around the holidays. This year, the FSB team donated box loads of non-perishable food items and delivered them to Spring Lake Elementary. There, up 60 backpacks will be packed of food for these 60 children who [...]