ABC
The Empire State Chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), representing more than 450 merit-shop contractors and subcontractors employing hundreds of thousands of workers throughout New York state, is calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to reject the proposed prevailing-wage mandates on Brownfield Cleanup Program (BCP) projects.
Since the early 2000s, the BCP has provided developers with much-needed incentives to remediate and revitalize environmentally contaminated sites. This program led to hundreds of contaminated sites, more than half of which are in economically disadvantaged areas, to be cleaned up and developed. These developments create much-needed housing and jobs in the local communities. The legislature clearly sees the value in the program — if not it wouldn’t have been recently extended for another decade.
Mandating prevailing wages on BCP projects will make them financially impossible for most owners/developers across the state. Prevailing-wage projects cost about 28 percent more than non-prevailing wage projects, according to the Center for Governmental Research. In addition to this study, the Empire Center for Public Policy found that construction costs are inflated by between 13 percent and 25 percent due to New York’s prevailing-wage law.
Read the rest of Empire State Chapter President Brian Sampson's article in The Central New York Business Journal here: