Agenda’s Emerging

There has been a lot of buzz around the Capitol over the last week on labor bills. Thursday they introduced the Prevailing Wage Bill (HSB 149).

HSB 149 – Wage and benefit mandates for public construction projects, also known as “prevailing wage”, are created and similar to federal-level “Davis-Bacon” type wage and benefit levels for all public construction projects. In short, property taxes will increase, given the increased costs of these projects.

Here’s what HSB 149 requires:

A contractor no longer determines wages and benefits. Those are now determined by the following three criteria:

• Previously used Davis-Bacon wages for the area
• Wages and benefits established by collective bargaining
• State Labor Commissioner conducts a “survey” and determines wage and benefit levels

New wages will apply to the following public projects:

• University projects over $100,000
• City and county projects over $100,000 (includes city with population over 20,000 and counties with populations over 40,000)
• All projects everywhere over $1 million in scope expands Labor

Commissioner’s authority to have unlimited access to job-site, employees, records, and financial documents.

It amazes me that, in the midst of a budget crisis and economic downturn, the powers that be decide to introduce a bill that is not going to help balance the budget or help create new jobs. This is not the only labor bill we will see this session.

I am also part of the Rebuild Iowa committee and we are seeing some things that raise a red flag. Here’s an example of the potential misuse of the funds which were to be directed to areas hit the hardest by the floods – $19,000 was spent to carpet the Rebuild Iowa office; there are 6 employees with projected earnings of over $100,000 per year; RIO has budgeted more in media expenses than all 150 elected officials in the Senate and House combined; and only two weeks after signing a bill that was passed in the House and Senate they were not able to answer how the implementation of funds are proceeding. We will continue to watch this unfold and hold people accountable.

I have received a lot of feedback from my question on the Gas Tax. The folks in our district overwhelming oppose an additional gas tax. I will be tracking this issue very closely. I am concerned about what the federal government is going to do with this issue and the last thing we need is to have both the State and Federal add an additional $.10 per gallon.