By Jeff Jenkins in News
November 10, 2019 at 4:11PM
CHARLESTON, W.Va. –
School superintendents from dozens of counties will appear before the state School Building Authority next week in hopes of convincing the SBA to fund their school construction projects in the latest round of “Needs” grants. A recent move by the SBA will allow some of those counties to seek more money for their projects.
The SBA last week approved a 20 percent increase in allowable square footage costs for new school construction.
“We’re seeing trends in square foot costs that affect all projects so we thought it was prudent for us to raise the maximum amount a county could request up to 20 percent higher,” SBA Director of Architectural Services Ben Ashley said.
A West Virginia labor leader said the increase is further proof the the legislature’s decision to repeal the state’s Prevailing Wage law in 2016 hasn’t worked.
“It’s true that costs have gone up but it’s kind of surprising that with the repeal of prevailing wage they are recognizing this,” West Virginia Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation Director Steve White recently told MetroNews. “You get what you pay for and the school systems are finding out when low-wage labor is used it’s causing all sorts of problems and costing them more.”
In 2016 the Republican-led legislature wiped out the long-held practice in West Virginia where the government surveys contractors to determine the minimum level of pay for a variety of classifications of jobs on state-funded projects, such as schools.
Supporters of prevailing wage argued prevailing wage provided a living wage for workers, while keeping out-of-state contractors from undercutting West Virginia construction companies and workers. Those favoring the repeal said the state overpaid millions of dollars for projects with the flawed survey system.