Letter: Upstate Can’t Afford Albany’s Prevailing Wage Expansion
June 5th, 2019
June 6, 2019
Dear Ms. Wylde:
I read with great interest your recent column in the Empire Report regarding the ongoing prevailing wage debate. Your article raised some valid points about the negative effects of expanding a prevailing wage but made some assumptions about Upstate that I felt needed to be addressed.
As the leading advocacy organization for Upstate taxpayers and employers, I believe that the impetus for expanding prevailing wage is not the Upstate economy, but rather a political push from powerful labor unions and politicians, largely from Downstate.
The chronically weak economic conditions in Upstate New York you described are exactly why this proposal would be fatal to Upstate’s economy.
Any notion that Upstate workers, union or not, are under-worked or under-paid is simply not the case. As you know, communities across the state are experiencing record low unemployment, requiring employers to increase wages to attract talent. Any business engaged in a “race to the bottom” would be unable to compete for labor, putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage. Workers are seeing bumps in their paychecks without burdensome Albany mandates that increase the cost of development.
Despite low unemployment, recent data from the New York State Department of Labor shows that Upstate job growth has been anemic at best. While communities Downstate have experienced a rise in private sector employment, most Upstate areas have flat lined – failing to recover the jobs lost during the Great Recession.
Recognizing this disparity, leaders in Albany have rightly sought to invest in Upstate development. This public support is needed to help potential projects overcome New York’s high construction costs and regulatory burdens.
Efforts in Albany to expand prevailing wage to private development would put a choke hold on the Upstate development. Programs specifically designed to spur economic growth would see their utility eliminated by these costly labor mandates.
The simple result of this proposed prevailing expansion will be less construction and fewer jobs. No state mandated wage increase benefits a worker with no project to work on. The impact of this lack of development, and the jobs this development supports, will hurt workers and drive more people out of Upstate communities.
Our organization and our partners across Upstate have been united in advocating against this costly proposal. We have been joined by a broad spectrum of voices across the state including small businesses, construction leaders, housing advocates, nonprofits, and community organizations.
Rather than signaling out any one region, I would encourage you to join us in urging the legislature to stop negotiating this bill behind closed doors, engage in an inclusive and transparent process and allow for feedback from perspectives across the state.
Our message on this is clear – this proposal would be a death sentence for economic development in Upstate New York. I hope you will continue to speak out about the impact this proposal will have on your community, as well.
Respectfully,
Michael Kracker
Executive Director, Unshackle Upstate
Cc:
Governor Andrew Cuomo
Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins
Speaker Carl Heastie
Members of the Upstate Legislative Delegation