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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | January 14, 2015 02:23 PM |
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| From: | Representative Dan Truitt |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Design Professionals Compensation (Previous HB-47) |
| How would you like to work and not get paid for your labor? This is, unfortunately, a situation some design professionals deal with every day. I have learned from civil engineers who live and work in my district about the difficulties they encounter in collecting the fees for the services that they provide to land developers. In short, after they create a development plan and it is approved by a municipality, construction begins and the design professionals don’t get paid for their work, or the payment is severely delayed. For an engineering firm, payroll is often most of their operating expenses. Delayed payments and non-payments make it impossible for these small business owners to cover payroll, let alone grow their businesses and hire additional staff. Engineering firms deliver paper and digital files to their clients and are not permitted to file mechanic’s liens on properties. Therefore, if the client does not pay, an engineering firm has little recourse beyond hiring a collection firm or attorney, at additional cost. To deal with this, in the near future, I will re-introduce legislation to amend the Municipal Planning Code (MPC) to require that before a municipality can issue final approval for a development plan, it must receive confirmation from the design firm that the design firm has been properly compensated and the plans have been released for construction. Last session’s bill is attached. I hope that you will join me in sponsoring this legislation. Co-sponsors of HB-47 from last session: TRUITT, KORTZ, SWANGER, WATSON, MURT, ROCK, HESS and DENLINGER |
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| View Attachment | ||
Introduced as HB1555