MABE (Maryland Association of Boards of Education) opposes bills increasing "prevailing wage" contracts

For those of you who follow how we budget and fund building projects for the school system, there are two bills -- HB 727 and SB 232 -- of concern to us right now. 

Until 2000, any building project that required at least 75% funding from the state required that the contracts for that project include "prevailing wage" clauses.  In 2000, that threshold was lowered to 50%, which meant that more contracts had to include "prevailing wage" clauses, which has been shown to increase the costs of those contracts overall. 

Now, HB 727 and SB 232 propose the LOWERING of that threshold yet again to only 25%.

The MABE position statements are available as follows:

MABE opposition to HB 727

MABE opposition to SB 232