Day: September 28, 2013

Bill Kills Pennsylvania Prevailing Wage


Bill kills Pennsylvania prevailing wage, at least for local projects

A bill allowing local governments to opt out of Pennsylvania’s onerous prevailing wage requirements has cleared the State House’s Committee of Labor and Industry and is now on the full floor reports State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129)

“House Bill 1538,  . . . would allow counties, municipal governments and school districts to offer competitive wages – instead of inflated payments based on urban wage rates – to workers on certain projects,” said Cox.

The prevailing wage law, which requires labor cost to be be paid at a rate set by the state for most public construction projects,  adds 20 percent to the cost of these projects according to Commonwealth Foundation.

The union bosses are not happy with this potential blow to their luxurious lifestyles and are commanding the sheep in their pens to action as they fear the bill and its sisters HB 665 and HB 796 will be put to vote next week.

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Toomey Explains Obamacare Fight

Toomey Explains Obamacare Fight — Pennsylvania’s Pat Toomey, who was one of 19 Republicans in the Senate who voted to defund Obamacare, has issued the below statement explaining his strategy. Thank you, Senator. You are an independent thinker and not one of those who are part of the problem.

Toomey Explains Obamacare FightAll my Republican colleagues and I want to end Obamacare completely. All the Democrats support Obamacare and want it to continue. The Republicans control the House and have passed defunding legislation. Democrats control the Senate and will not pass defunding legislation. Thus, we are at an impasse. Yesterday, seeking to break this all-or-nothing standoff, I proposed a way to fund the government and to repeal some of the most egregious parts of this terrible law. Acknowledging that Senator Reid has the votes to strip the bill of its Obamacare defunding language, I sought to offer three modest amendments to the Senate bill. The first would repeal the medical device tax that is costing Pennsylvania jobs; the second would provide relief from the infringement on religious liberty in Obamacare; the third would delay the individual mandate for one year.

Those three items all have bipartisan support, could have passed the Senate, and might well be acceptable to the House.  But we will never know because the Democratic leadership would not permit me to offer those amendments. For this reason, and others, I voted against the measure.

I remain hopeful that Congress will avoid a government shutdown. I will continue working with colleagues on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers of Congress to find a responsible solution.

 Toomey Explains Obamacare Fight