Wage Crushers' (ALEC) Prevailing Wage Claims Are Nonsense - Center for Media and Democracy

[Bill USA]

http://www.prwatch.org/node/12802

Now that the Wisconsin GOP and its allies have rammed though an American Legislative Exchange Council "right to work" (RTW) bill, the same cast of characters is back pushing another ALEC model: repeal of the state’s prevailing wage laws. These laws require public construction projects to support local wage standards instead of undercutting them.

Who could be against repealing the laws when proponents, such as the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity, tout mind-boggling savings of $300 million a year for school districts and taxpayers? But the claims are nonsense and the savings a "mirage," say experts. Research using actual data by academics who actually understand construction has consistently shown that prevailing wage laws do not cost taxpayers more because high-skill workers are so much more productive.

Even before RTW was passed, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald had let it be known prevailing wage repeal could be the next target. Repealing prevailing wage "will save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars each year," says bill sponsor Sen. Leah Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa. Vukmir is on ALEC’s national board, so it is no surprise that the measure is also taken directly from the ALEC playbook.

In February, prevailing wage repeal supporters were touting an Anderson Economic Group study done at the behest of the nonunion construction trade group, Associated Builders and Contractors, in Michigan. Ignoring research that shows comparable per-square-foot public construction costs in states with and without prevailing wage laws and no savings in building costs when prevailing wage laws are repealed, the study simply asserts that Michigan’s prevailing wage law has inflated labor costs by 25 percent and then, naturally, concludes that repeal would save Michigan taxpayers precisely that amount -- $224 million a year. No actual evidence was proffered to support either claim.
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- See more at: http://www.prwatch.org/node/12802#sthash.3bcOp7Oe.dpuf

[gregcrawford]

1. The malignant minions of ALEC are congenitally incapable...

... of discerning the truth, let alone telling it. The staggering stupidity of an electorate that would RE-elect a lying SOS like Scott Walker, or ANY Republican, makes me despair for the future of humanity.

Democracy in this country is dead. Long live democracy.