{"id":9508,"date":"2011-03-30T13:54:15","date_gmt":"2011-03-30T20:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/?p=9508"},"modified":"2011-03-30T13:54:15","modified_gmt":"2011-03-30T20:54:15","slug":"a-billion-here-a-billion-there-the-cost-of-prevailing-wage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/a-billion-here-a-billion-there-the-cost-of-prevailing-wage\/","title":{"rendered":"A Billion Here, A Billion There: The Cost of Prevailing Wage"},"content":{"rendered":"
(Michael Chamberlain\/Nevada Business Coalition<\/em>)\u00a0– One thing that most everybody can agree on is that it doesn\u2019t make sense to overpay for something. If you were at a gas station and noticed gasoline at one pump selling for one price and the same grade and type of gasoline in the pump right next to it selling for twice as much, would you buy the higher-priced gas? We would hope not.<\/p>\n Yet the state of Nevada and every municipality within it does precisely that every day. By mandating that contractors pay prevailing wage rates on public works projects they spend additional money needlessly. Since these extra costs are passed on, it is the taxpayers who ultimately end up footing the bill. And the amounts are staggering \u2013 more than a billion dollars worth in just two years according to a recent report<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n This calculation reveals that taxpayers devoted $1.336 billion in unnecessary labor costs in just 2008 and 2009.\u00a0<\/p>\n While this over-spending is a windfall to politically connected trade unions, it necessarily means far less money is available to pay for basic government services. This drives union-complicit lawmakers to whine about \u201cinsufficient revenue\u201d for the next budget cycle, whereupon they try to impose even higher taxes on Nevada families and businesses. It is a vicious circle in which lawmakers loot the public and funnel the money to unions.<\/p>\n These same lawmakers are now pretending to \u201ccreate jobs\u201d in the construction industry through a \u201cNevada Jobs Fund\u201d to funnel new money to trade unions in public works projects paying prevailing wage rates.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n