Reaffirmed March 12, 2019

RESOLUTION OF THE GREATER UTICA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN OPPOSITION OF THE REDEFINING OF PUBLIC WORKS PROJECTS AS A WAY TO EXPAND PREVAILING WAGE

WHEREAS; the Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with Unshackle Upstate and its allied business organizations, which represent tens of thousands of New York State employers, opposes any expansion, extension or application of New York State’s prevailing wage mandate to include private development projects that receive some degree of public support, and

WHEREAS; the Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce also opposes any redefinition of public work to include private projects that receive economic development support, and

WHEREAS; according to the Empire Center’s seminal report on the topic “Prevailing Waste: New York’s Costly Public Works Pay Mandate” prevailing wage increases the cost of construction jobs across New York State by 13-25%, and

WHEREAS; the current prevailing wage mandate is flawed and miscalculated and fails to represent the actual prevailing or median regional wage for a given construction trade, and

WHEREAS; extending this expensive mandate to private sector economic development projects will result in less economic development across New York State, and

WHEREAS; such expansion of this mandate will create further negative economic effects in Upstate New York, which by every metric continues to economically lag Downstate as well as the majority of our nation, and

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED; the Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce opposes this expansion of the definition of public works projects as it essentially targets smaller community based projects that receive a fraction of public funding and are driven by local private dollars and development agencies causing such projects to become financially unfeasible.

Originally Approved April 10, 2018