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“One thing that I have seen proposed recently is on prevailing wage for school facilities. If we weren't paying a prevailing wage on local courthouses and school facilities, it would save hundreds of millions of dollars for the citizens of Kentucky,” Duncan said.
Rep. Tim Moore, R-Elizabethtown, said he, too, is frustrated by the slow pace which the House has addressed the budget shortfall and believes the General Assembly should look for cost-cutting measures rather than new avenues of spending. He said there are other ways to cut expenses that the General Assembly is avoiding. For instance, Moore said the state’s prevailing wage — a median wage paid to workers in a specified location — puts an additional expense on the price of every construction project in the state with no just cause for doing so.
State Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, has urged Gov. Steve Beshear to add the prevailing wage issue to the special session to allow our state to “maximize every taxpayer dollar.”
State leaders and fiscal watchdogs Monday criticized the commonwealth’s antiquated and costly system for paying for public construction projects as a special session of the Legislature convened to address the budget shortfall.
Frankfort is already discussing options from expanded gaming to additional budget cuts to tax reform to meet these looming challenges. It would be my suggestion, however, that we first dedicate ourselves to maximizing every dollar we invest in Kentucky's future.
Sen. Damon Thayer (R-Georgetown) has requested Gov. Steve Beshear to add repeal of the prevailing wage (as applied to schools) to the list of topics called for in the upcoming Special Session.
The Kentucky Opportunity Coalition is correct to demand that school construction be exempted from the prevailing wage. Whatever amount of money is ultimately appropriated to school facilities, repeal of the prevailing wage will allow that amount to go ten percent further.
The Kentucky Opportunity Coalition calls for the Kentucky General Assembly to permanently repeal the prevailing wage provision on education projects. The special session has made the issue of school facility conditions a priority facing the Commonwealth.
The ordinance requires companies bidding on projects receiving city tax subsidies of more than $250,000 to pay prevailing wages.
Prevailing wages and benefits, as established for each profession or trade, must be paid.
Imagine what Kentucky schools could have done with that money. If prevailing-wage requirements had not been forced on school districts all these years, schools could have been repaired and Kentucky’s students could have received a better education.
"A study by the Kentucky Department of Education in 2008 found more than 90,000 elementary, middle and high school students attended classes in buildings that are deteriorated or in need of immediate attention,"
President Obama said in his Inaugural Address yesterday that government must spend to rebuild roads and bridges, but that those "who manage the public's dollars" must also "spend wisely" and "reform bad habits." With that ambition in mind, here's an idea to save tens of billions of taxpayer dollars in the months ahead: Repeal Davis-Bacon superminimum wage requirements for construction projects.
At a time when the state is facing a monumental budget crisis, it’s mindboggling to consider that there’s a law on the books that costs taxpayers millions extra for public construction projects.
Construction companies are trimming their bids in hopes of staying busy during tough economic times, said Mary Wright, the county schools' chief operating officer.
President Obama is proposing to begin a vast expansion of the U.S. health-care system by creating a $634 billion reserve fund over the next decade, launching an overhaul that most experts project will ultimately cost at least $1 trillion.
When the House last week passed a “technical budget clean up” bill, Rep. Addia Wuchner, R-Burlington, had the best line: “I thought we were broke,” Wuchner said during the floor debate.
"The power of the people is there. Freedom is in the people's hands right now, and it's about to slip through."
Time is running out to find ways to save money in Kentucky's budget. Taxing cigarettes and allowing gasoline tax cuts to expire might help, but how about passing legislation which will save the Commonwealth gobs of money right where it is needed most, on building projects in our communities?
A new group, Kentucky Opportunity Coalition, is promoting a commonsense prevailing wage exemption for school building projects and is being actively ignored by the pundits when the need for money-saving ideas couldn't be more clear.
Kentucky Opportunity Coalition, Inc. | P.O. Box 6067 | Louisville, KY 40206
