Bob Bauder
Monday, April 15, 2019 3:37 p.m.
Several hundred carpenters’ union members and public officials rallied Monday in Downtown Pittsburgh to call for an end to construction industry fraud.
Union officials said unscrupulous contractors and labor brokers rob the public of federal and local tax revenue by paying workers cash “under the table,” misclassifying them as independent contractors and failing to pay such benefits as workman’s compensation and unemployment.
The fraud costs local governments across the United States an estimated $450 billion annually in lost tax revenue, officials said.
“When you talk about tax fraud, it’s about people that are cheating,” said Bill Waterkotte, eastern district vice president of the Keystone Mountain Lakes Regional Council of Carpenters. “They’re not paying taxes. They’re paying cash. Four hundred and fifty billion (dollars), in evading taxes. That could go to building our roads and bridges, our schools, our veterans, helping the people who need help, and they’re stealing it.”
The union estimates fraud costs Pennsylvania governments about $200 million each year, but offered no specifics for the Pittsburgh region.
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Pittsburgh City Council late last year approved a resolution proposed by Councilman Corey O’Connor that created a task force to investigate the issue. O’Connor said the members plan to offer future legislative remedies to council and the mayor.
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“We are going to go after those bad workers, those people that take our tax money, that take your jobs because subcontractors and contractors are undercutting city bids. We have to stop that,” O’Connor said.