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Corman Pleased With Governor's Reversal of Labor & Industry
Policy
on Prevailing Wage
HARRISBURG -- Sen.
Jake Corman (R-34), in a phone call today from Governor Ed Rendell, learned that
a policy guideline that extended prevailing wage rates to local road projects
using liquid fuels funds will be reversed.
On April 6,
2006, Sen. Corman wrote to Labor and Industry Secretary Stephen M. Schmerin
questioning a new policy that drastically changed guidelines that have been in
place for over a decade regarding the applicability of the Prevailing Wage Act
to municipal road projects.
Today, in a
phone conversation with Governor Ed Rendell, Corman was told that the guideline
changes would be reversed.
The Department
of Labor & Industry's policy guideline was made without consultation with local
governments and came as a surprise, prompting Sen. Corman's letter. The new
guidelines would have changed the resurfacing classification, required
municipalities to pay the prevailing wage rate, reflecting higher, union-scale
pay rates, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, this year and
beyond.
"I am very
pleased that Governor Rendell moved swiftly to rescind the guidelines that were
so devastating to local government's budgets," said Corman. "It is to his
credit that he was able to see how destructive this policy would be to local
governments and the maintenance of local roads and quickly reverse the
guidelines before real harm was realized."
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