PREVAILING WAGE BILL DEFEATED IN IOWA (05/06/2009)
ABC’s Iowa chapter celebrated an April 26 victory when the Iowa House of Representatives failed to get the votes needed to pass a prevailing wage requirement. When the general assembly finally adjourned after midnight, the vote on House File 333 stood at 49-49 which is just short of the majority needed to move the bill to the Senate.
If enacted, H.F. 333 would have required payment of prevailing wages on state-funded construction projects worth more than $1 million. In addition, projects funded by a city with more than 20,000 residents or city-funded projects worth more than $100,000 also would have been subject to the prevailing wage.
A fiscal note for the bill showed that the legislation had the potential to increase labor costs between 10 and 40 percent. In a state with a budget shortfall of more than $134 million, the note showed the bill would have cost the Iowa General Fund an estimated $524,000 in additional construction costs this fiscal year and another $1.2 million next fiscal year and subsequent years.
