A press release from Allen Skillicorn:
Prevailing Wage Is A Bum Deal For The Collar Counties
Prevailing Wage is supposed to set a minimum hourly wage for skilled labor based on the cost of living for each of Illinois’ 102 counties.
We would all agree the cost living is lower in rural versus urban areas.
The average family can buy a much larger home for the same amount of money in McHenry, Kane, Grundy, and Kendall Counties versus Cook County.
As it turn outs Illinois’ Prevailing Wage Law is a bum deal for these collar and exurban counties like McHenry, Kane, Grundy, and Kendall because residents still have to pay Cook County wages.
Cook County’s prevailing wage rates.
Every year local municipalities are required to pass a Prevailing Wage Ordinance.
As you can see in the charts below these wages are based on or directly tied to Cook County wages. Since taxpayers in McHenry, Kane, Kendall, and other Counties are paying higher wages, their tax rates must go up even higher.
Prevailing wage rates in McHenry County.
Prevailing wage rates in Kane County.
Prevailing wage rates in Kendall County. (Kendall is south of Kane County.)
Prevailing wages have nothing to do with the size of houses in collar counties.
Most of the houses built in McHenry County are built by non union workers yet they are still expensive and the property taxes are out of this world for the services provided.
For example look at local streets and all of the potholes in the county.
Prevailing wages are only for government buildings.
The high cost in McHenry and collar counties are from public teachers, police and firefighters.
Public workers should be non union as they pit taxpayers against one another.
Private unions should be expanded because as we see the wages since unions were big have steadily been downgraded and people have relied on government programs instead of businesses paying them a living wage.
Businesses are the biggest welfare recipients in the USA.
Stop TPP trade agreement and bring higher paying jobs to America.
Also put owners of businesses in jail for hiring illegal immigrants and the situation will change.
The Union wage is the highest wage, not the prevailing wage.
The courts refuse to define the term prevailing wage for government projects.
PW attaches in TIF districts if there a development agreement.
Look at GAT Guns and Gary Lang Chevy…
What strikes me is that County projects are never analyzed for affordability.
At some price, prudent stewards of public money should say no to projects which cost 20%-50% more than fair value.
When a building or road project is proposed, there is talk about what we ‘need’ and what we want, but never what we can afford.
There is no discussion about foregoing projects which are unaffordable in a County with citizens paying over 4% of home value property taxes.
Where is the Illinois Department of Labor wage determination information.
Meaning the State data supporting the wages they set; not the wages themselves.
Never heard of a local taxing district ever protesting and winning a reduction in the prevailing wages set by the IL Dept of Labor…is there even such a process…if so probably onerous with little if any cost / benefit.
How transparent is the process by the IL Dept of Labor used in setting prevailing wages.
It’s just a guaranteed rubber stamp by local taxing districts of wages set by the state.
Never heard of union wages being higher than prevailing wages either…where’s the examples.
The union asks it’s members to complete surveys showing what you paid per hour, over 8, Saturdays (1.5) Sundays (2).
Currently it’s the law to pay these wages on every project funded in whole or in part by tax dollars, so if you paid less (believe me many many do) you wouldn’t want to admit that you did!
The courts have never decided this.
The law requires bids go to the lowest qualifying bid.
A study has been done on this subject.
It shows repeal of prevailing wage would have a negative effect on the state.
The law has been around since the ’30s I think and was designed to prevent workers from lower wage states from taking all the construction jobs here.
I know I would like my tax dollars to support IL workers.
But I would love to see more reasonable wages and benefits.
@Allen Skillicorn Gary Lang had NOTHING to do with TIF District.
It was a Sales Tax incentive deal.
Since you from East Dundee and not McHenry I will explain it, T
he deal reached between McHenry and Gary Lang clearly states in the agreement that they wouldn’t be doing the expansion WITHOUT the Sales tax deal (50% given back to them over 10 Years.)
So that is what made it Prevailing Wage not TIF.
Not sure about the McHenry deal, but there are different types of TIFs: property tax, sales tax, etc.
Illinois Department of Revenue
Local Government
Sales Tax Increment Financing
“Definition —
The department distributes state sales tax collections to municipalities that have tax increment financing (TIF) districts for either state sales tax, state utility tax, or both that produced an incremental growth in retail sales, or gas and electricity consumption.
Funds are prorated to each municipality based on its share of the overall TIF net state increment.
Distribution — Overall TIF funding is 0.27 percent of net state sales tax revenues.
Funds are allocated quarterly to all eligible TIF municipalities. Each TIF district is subject to the following reduction in order to determine the net state sales tax increment (the maximum amount available to each municipality for each TIF district):
– 80 percent of the increment up to and including $100,000
– 60 percent of the increment exceeding $100,000 but not exceeding $500,000
– 40 percent of all amounts exceeding $500,000
For each quarterly distribution, each eligible municipality receives a prorated share of the available distribution amount.”
For information about the Property Tax TIF Program, contact the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.”
http://tax.illinois.gov/LocalGovernment/Overview/HowDisbursed/tif.htm