Prevailing Wage Repeal Will Pass, Senator Predicts

— A bill to do away with the state’s “prevailing wage” requirement on public works projects will pass, Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Gravette, assured the audience at a forum of local lawmakers Saturday.

Correction

Sen. Jim Hendren's first name was incorrect in a previous version of this story. The error has been corrected.

State Rep. Dan Douglas, R-Bentonville, is drafting a repeal and the idea has broad support, Hendren said at a forum hosted by the Bentonville/Bella Vista and Rogers-Lowell chambers of commerce. The forum began at 9 a.m. at NorthWest Arkansas Community College.

Government-funded construction projects are required to pay wages according to scale set by the Arkansas Department of Labor. The Department’s Prevailing Wage Division bases the wages on a survey of commercial contractors to report the wage scales paid to their respective trade professions.

This wage standard applies to public projects where material and labor exceeds $75,000. Road and school construction is exempt.

The prevailing wage scale adds to the cost of Benton County projects and other government projects across the state, Benton County Judge Bob Clinard told the county Quorum Court’s legislative committee earlier this month . On one of the county’s recent construction projects, Clinard said, a subcontractor’s bid was $41,000. Of that total bid, Clinard said he was told $6,000 was the cost of complying with the prevailing wage scale.

David Stephens, vice president of the state AFL-CIO, said in a recent interview the law protects workers and contractors.

“The whole reason for the prevailing wage scale is to keep out-of-town workers and contractors from coming in and low-balling local companies for government contracts,” Stephens said. “These are public works jobs that are being done with area tax money.”

Eight members of the Benton County legislative delegation turned up at Saturday’s forum. All said they would support a bill allowing people licensed for concealed carry of firearms in churches if those churches allow it.

Two of the eight said they wouldn’t vote to allow concealed carry unless a congregation had the right to prohibit weapons in their places of worship. The same two lawmakers, Rep. Debbie Hobbs and Skip Carnine, both R-Rogers, said they would only support allowing concealed carry in schools or college campuses if the school board or college board of trustees also had the right to bar such weapons if they chose.

Audience member Roger Kunzelmann of Bentonville criticized lawmakers for this support. Kunzelmann said he’s a former resident of Newtown, Conn., site of a recent school massacre that left 20 students and six adults dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The shooter also killed his mother at home and himself.

“I can’t believe that in this day and age you’d let people carry arms and concealed weapons into a church,” Kunzelmann told lawmakers.

Hobbs replied: “If a sign saying ‘No Guns Allowed’ would keep the people doing these shootings out, I’d be for the sign.”

In other discussion, Hendren said he backs a pilot project that would pick a school district in the state and help convert that district’s vehicle fleet, including buses, to using compressed natural gas. The fuel is considered a prospect for reducing dependence on imported oil.

Hendren said he’s working with the state Department of Education and with higher education institutions to come up with a plan that would scientifically show whether such a conversion was beneficial.

Health care and the possible expansion of Medicaid under federal health care reform law also came up. Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, R-Rogers, is chairwoman of the Senate Health Committee. She said the state is still trying to get answers to basic questions on how such a plan would work and some assurance that promised federal money to pay for it would arrive.

Third District Rep. Steve Womack, R-Rogers, attended the forum. Womack told Bledsoe after the meeting she was right to be concerned. The expensive health care expansion is like every other issue in federal budget talks now.

It is open to debate, he said.

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