Common Ground on Common Construction Wage
For the most part this legislative session, I’ve been pretty agnostic on the issue of repealing Indiana’s Common Construction Wage (CCW) law.
For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a law that allows local governments to set prevailing wages on public construction projects. It’s been around since the early part of the last century. Opponents say it increases the price of public projects by as much as 20-25%. Supporters say it guarantees fair wages and quality assurance on public projects.
I have friends on both sides of the issue and both can make compelling cases for their positions, which is why I think the solution literally does lie somewhere in the middle. Allow me to offer it.
The free market capitalist in me says lawmakers should move forward with repealing the CCW, but give local governments a lot more flexibility in the bidding process, preferably the same flexibility the private sector has. A free market only works when both the buyer and seller can take advantage of it.
Right now under current law, if my memory serves me correctly, local governments must accept the lowest, responsive bid, which means the lowest bidder who can post a bond gets the work. I argue, change that to the lowest, responsible bidder. That way, we can balance fiscal prudence with quality work.
We’ve all heard stories about someone who tried to do something on the cheap and all it did was end up costing more money in long haul. There’s no reason taxpayers should have to suffer through that either. They also shouldn’t have to suffer with increased costs of public projects.
This is why I think as lawmakers go forward with figuring out what to do with CCW, they might want to look at my suggestions.
There is common ground, the question is will either side be willing to head in that direction.
