By Doug Finke
Posted Aug 13, 2019 @ 5:21 pm
Comptroller Susana Mendoza said Tuesday her office will monitor contracts awarded under the state’s new $45 billion capital program to ensure contractors are adhering to prevailing wage laws.
If someone doesn’t, Mendoza said, her office will take steps to halt any payments until the contractor comes into compliance.
“We know (prevailing wage) is the law, but not everybody follows it,” Mendoza said. “What we have is a $45 billion capital plan that we are about to embark on. Anything we can do to make sure that state taxpayer dollars are being utilized (in a way that) that state law says that they must is important to get the word out and educate the public.”
Mendoza said her office will monitor and conduct preaudits of contracts and grants awarded under the Rebuild Illinois capital plan. She said her office is prepared to receive complaints from people who are aware of prevailing wage violations and will also work with the Department of Labor on complaints it receives. Attempts will be made to bring a contractor into compliance, but if all else fails, the office has a nuclear option.
“What we have the ability to do that no other state agency or no other constitutional officer has the ability to do is withhold payment,” Mendoza said.
Mendoza acknowledged the problem of prevailing wage violations is not widespread.
“Every now and then we get complaints of folks who are in violation,” she said.
Mendoza said contractors with the state have to check a box on forms pledging to adhere to the prevailing wage, so the existence of the law should come as no surprise.
Some Republicans, notably former Gov. Bruce Rauner, believed the prevailing wage law forced up the cost of public works projects.
“I disagree with this being framed as bloated and higher costs,” said Illinois AFL-CIO President Michael Carrigan. “Prevailing wage is a product of collective bargaining. Unions and employers sit down and have hard negotiations across the table. Those are a product of negotiation.”
Former Comptroller Dan Hynes, who is now a deputy governor in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration, signed a similar executive order in 2002. However, enforcement of the order has fallen off in recent years.