Nevada officials back raising size of projects to trigger prevailing wage

City and county officials across the state Tuesday urged approval of a bill that would significantly raise the size of projects that require contractors to pay prevailing wages.

Unions uniformly opposed AB99 saying it would hurt Nevada workers.

Existing law requires public entities including the university system to pay prevailing wage rates for all projects over $100,000.

The bill sponsored by John Ellison of Elko and 14 other Assembly Republicans would raise that trigger to $250,000. Under the bill, public works, capital and transportation projects costing less than that would be exempt from paying prevailing wages.

Ellison argued prevailing wage rates are particularly hard on small, rural counties that have very limited funding for capital projects.

Elko County Commissioner Delmo Andreozi said prevailing wages increase the cost of projects by a third. He said a typical street project in Elko costs about $100,000 a block.

He was joined by several other local government representatives including the Nevada Association of Counties, League of Cities and the Associated Builders and Contractors.

Warren Hardy representing the ABC pointed out it has been years since the limit was raised.

But William Stanley of the Southern Nevada Building Trades Union said prevailing wage laws were put in place to prevent local workers from being undercut by cheaper labor from other places.

Skip Daly of Sparks, representing the laborers’ union, said raising the trigger won’t get more Nevadans jobs. He said those jobs would instead be claimed by workers from Utah.

He was joined by representatives of painters, carpenters and other trade unions across the state.

The Assembly Judiciary Committee took no action on AB99.