Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

letter to the editor:

Exemption will only hurt middle class

It never ceases to amaze me how the Republican Party can play its smoke-and-mirror games with the middle class. The current attack on the middle class in Nevada is under the pretext of saving money for more schools by eliminating prevailing wage laws as they pertain to the public school system.

State Sen. Ben Kieckhefer recently said that some studies show 30 percent of costs could be saved. Will exempting prevailing wage on public schools lower the cost of a sheet of drywall? Will the bottom fall out of the steel, glass and concrete market to help reflect this dramatic drop in prices and increased savings? No! Pricing for construction materials will remain the same tomorrow as they are today, or maybe go higher. The only areas where costs can be manipulated are in the area of workers’ wages.

In 1931 (at the federal level), Sen. James Davis and Rep. Robert Bacon (both Republicans) understood the standard of living for their constituents and those contractors who employed them needed to be on a level playing field with federal construction projects built in their respective areas by out-of-state contractors and their crews.

It was because of these two outstanding legislators that the Davis-Bacon Act was voted into law at the federal level first and later by individual states.

What is prevailing wage? It is the wages paid to workers based on a survey submitted to the state by contractors on a county-by-county basis. Wages paid to different trade’s workers — carpenters, ironworkers, electricians and laborers, etc. — on construction projects statewide is what allows these people to live middle-class lives. That same survey shows why the prevailing wage in White Pine County, Nev., is lower than in Clark County — Clark County has more construction.

We all know construction workers. They are our neighbors, friends, sons and daughters. They are the middle class. By exempting school construction from prevailing wage laws, it won’t take long before all of our schools will be built by workers from Arizona, Utah, Texas or any other state that has successfully held down middle-class wages. Nevadans, who pay the taxes to build the schools in the first place, will be collecting unemployment.

Wake up, Nevada! This is what happens when you don’t vote. Nobody gave these legislators a mandate to mistreat the middle class, but you get what you pay for.

Shame on the Republican Party for forgetting its history.

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