Senator Toni Boucher, Twenty-sixth Senate Distsrict, CT
Connecticut's prevailing wage
statute is one of the many unfunded mandates with which our towns must comply.
These laws require municipalities to pay a higher wage for public works
projects, further constraining their budgets and leading to higher local taxes.
Raising the threshold for new construction from $400,000 to $4 million, and for
renovations from $100,000 to $2 million would substantially reduce the number
of public projects that would be forced to use the prevailing wage law and
allow towns to conserve funds for other public services. However, this bill
also requires any business organization to pay prevailing wage rates to any
person performing the work of a mechanic, laborer or worker when the state
provides financial assistance to fund the project. Sen. Boucher opposes this
provision of the bill since it would lead to businesses pang prevailing wage
rates on any project partially or fully funded by the State.
Continued at
https://www.cga.ct.gov/2016/JFR/h/2016HB-05377-R00LAB-JFR.htm