Sen. Skoufis said that prior to authoring the bill that was part of a package approved in the final budget, he held discussions with a number of stakeholders including the Orange County IDA, the Orange County Partnership, the building trades and others. He said the final budget bill language was nearly identical to a bill he proposed in January of this year. Sen. Skoufis said that he made it clear since January that this was his position on the issue during budget negotiations and that the new regulation “should have come as no surprise” to any stakeholders in Orange County.

Todd Diorio, president of the Hudson Valley Building & Construction Trades Council, said, “I am never going to not support prevailing wage rate language.” He also noted that the bill gives private developers that receive certain benefits the option of entering a Project Labor Agreement with the building trades. He noted that the HVBCT offers three distinct PLAs with different terms depending on the project size that offer concessions that lower project labor costs. “We truly believe that labor costs are incremental in the overall project cost,” Mr. Diorio added. “We’ve won jobs against non-union, non-prevailing wage rate firms every day, So, is there a real big difference between prevailing wage rate versus non-prevailing wage rate? I would say no.” 

For full coverage of the new regulation, see the July edition of CONSTRUCTION NEWS.