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SPONSOR: | Lyons | DATE TYPED: | 02/09/00 | HB | |||
SHORT TITLE: | Increase Amount of Public Works Contracts | SB | 230 | ||||
ANALYST: | Taylor |
Recurring
or Non-Rec |
Fund
Affected | ||||
FY00 | FY01 | FY00 | FY01 | ||
NFI |
Duplicates HB249
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
New Mexico Labor Department
Commission on Higher Education
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
Senate Bill 230 increases the dollar threshold above which public works projects and contracts are subject to prevailing wage requirements. Currently any public works project with a value greater than $20 thousand is required to pay laborers and mechanics the prevailing wage for similar work in the state or locality. The bill would increase the minimum value from $20 thousand to $250 thousand.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS
The New Mexico labor department reports that the bill would have a minimal impact on revenues because raising the threshold will result in fewer projects to subject to the public works' minimum wage act. Enforcing the act provides the department with between $112 thousand and $140 thousand in revenue annually, but only some of this is from smaller projects. The department also reports that raising the threshold will result in less time being spent on monitoring payrolls and conducting wage inspections of smaller projects, thereby freeing more time to monitor larger projects.
OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES
The labor department reports that based on FY 99 statistics, raising the threshold would affect about 14 percent of public works' projects, and representing 6.5 percent of the value of all public work's projects.
BT/sb