There’s a renewed push in Lansing to repeal Michigan’s prevailing wage law. It requires union-level wages and benefits for people working on state-funded construction projects.
Bills to repeal the law will be the first ones introduced in the 98th Legislature, which met for the first time this week. The main Senate bill will be sponsored by new Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, who says it will be one of his priorities this year.
“It’s a cost savings to local governments and our schools,” Meekhof said in a wide-ranging interview with Michigan Public Radio on Thursday. “And anything we can do to make their lives easier in terms of cost, I think, is better for the taxpayer.”
Democrats have blasted plans to repeal the law because they say it guarantees workers a decent wage. Meekhof says he doesn’t see why it has to be a divisive issue.
“I don’t know what’s divisive about saving money for local governments and schools. I think that’s where we need to concentrate.”
But Gov. Rick Snyder says he has “no intention” of supporting any plan to repeal the prevailing wage law.
“I don’t think prevailing wage is an issue that I support making a move on, and I haven’t for four years already and I don’t expect to change on that,” Snyder told reporters on Thursday.
But Snyder stopped short of saying he would veto legislation if it reached his desk. The governor has not denied that he and Democrats have reached an understanding that he will not sign a prevailing wage repeal. There has been speculation at the state Capitol that he made the agreement to win Democratic votes for legislation to boost state road funding.
"If I said something in private and I told it, it wouldn't be private anymore,"
Snyder told MIRSnews.com in December in response to what he called “an interesting question” about whether he made the agreement.
