One thing voters did not get to decide in recent school millage elections was whether they wanted to pay higher wages for the construction projects that were approved in districts across the state.
Yet that's what will happen because of the state's prevailing wage law, which mandates that union scale wages be paid on construction work funded by taxpayer dollars, regardless of the winning bidder on a contract.
Unless the law is changed before the projects get under way, $35 million of the nearly $469 million voters approved for construction this month will be spent to cover the costs of the prevailing wage, according to the Associated Builders and Contractors of Michigan, a statewide trade association representing the commercial and industrial construction industries."Today, the majority of construction workers in Michigan — 80 percent — choose not to belong to a union, yet the state is still basing wages for publicly funded construction on fiscally irresponsible union agreements," said Chris Fisher, president of ABC of Michigan.
"We're not trying to say there was anything wrong with the voters approving the projects.
We're pointing out that the projects would be more cost effective if this outdated law was repealed."
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