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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 3, 2013 10:41 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Duane D. Milne |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Free Enterprise Protection/Prevailing Wages Exemption/Historic Projects - Former HB1543 |
| In the proverbial near future, I will be introducing legislation to exempt from the requirements of the Prevailing Wage Act work on projects on property owned or held by historic organizations or land conservancies. As you know, the Prevailing Wage Act establishes "prevailing" minimum wage rates that must be paid on public construction projects. Often, the rates that must be paid under the act are union wage rates; such are not always reflective of the wage rates that would be paid on construction projects in a given municipality if the free enterprise system were permitted to operate. Studies in this and other states have consistently indicated that the requirements of state prevailing wage laws artificially inflate the costs of public construction projects in the range of 10%-30%. I do not believe that historic preservation projects, or projects done by land conservancies, should be subject to the expense and bureaucracy of this law. Budgets of such groups generally are small. We need to ensure that such groups, merely trying to perform good works for their communities, can stretch their limited budgets as far as possible. This legislation, therefore, is in the best interests of promoting the public good. I would welcome your partnership in advancing this legislation. |
Introduced as HB662