'Prevailing Wage' Affects Pennsylvania Transportation Budget Talks
By Tony Romeo
HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) - A new wrinkle has emerged as negotiations continue over a bill to generate new funding for roads, bridges and mass transit in Pennsylvania, a bill slated for a state House vote next week. The House GOP is raising the stakes over the issue of "prevailing wages".
Much of the speculation about the transportation negotiations has to do with an agreement on the level of funding. The Senate has already passed a bill that House majority Republicans think is too expensive. But another issue is growing in importance and that it is prevailing wage. The state law requiring that union wages in a region be paid to workers for companies with state contracts.
Governor Corbett this week wouldn't comment on it.
"We have many different issues on the table," Corbett said. "The goal is to get 103 votes in the House."
But Stephen Miskin, spokesman for the House majority leader, says prevailing wage is gaining traction as an issue in transportation negotiations.
"In order to pass a transportation bill that's a way to get some Republican votes," Miskin said.
Miskin says Republicans want to roll back an expansion of prevailing wage regulations that occurred during the Rendell years.
