The state House of Representatives is about to take up a bill that would exempt school districts from Pennsylvania's prevailing wage requirements for public works contracts.
House Bill 709, or the "School Construction Cost Reduction Act," would exempt school districts as a public entity required to pay prevailing wages, unless the school board votes to be subject to prevailing wage.
School officials say the bill is long overdue.
"The prevailing wage needs to go," said Dale Myers, President of the South Western School Board in Hanover. "It's not a fair way to do construction work. As a taxpayer, I've regretted it."
Myers said when Southwestern needed to fix a few leaky roofs, the first bid came in at $84,000 but the bidder forgot to factor in prevailing wage. He reworked the numbers and the new bill came in at $125,000.
When the district built a new elementary school a few years ago, Myers said the guys driving the bulldozer got about $40 an hour. When they were finished, they went to work on building a Walmart store and were paid $20 an hour for doing the same job.
"Why would we use taxpayer money to pay twice the amount to an individual that we're willing to see him paid otherwise on a private job," Myers said.
Prevailing wage has been in existence for 50 years and applies to any municipal construction project such as road and bridge construction, school projects, water and sewer projects costing more than $25,000. It was established to protect local workers from being low-balled by outsiders on municipal projects.
Union leaders insist the quality is higher on prevailing wage projects and the money spent is spent locally.
"There should be prevailing wage to maintain the standard of living in the community and bring the taxpayer dollar back to the community and guarantee the wage will be paid back to the worker in that area," said Frank Sirianni, President of the Pennsylvania Building and Construction Trades Council."
Another bill before the Legislature, House Bill 1329, would raise the threshold before prevailing wage would be paid on a public project from $25,000 to $185,000. Critics have argued that the mark should be set at $500,000 or higher.
Posts
