Ensuring laborers were protected from physical danger and properly trained to work on capital projects, the Wicks Law had good intentions when enacted in the early 1900s.
Today, with more general contractors turning to private companies rather than utilizing union labor, proponents of Wicks Law ”“ the state”™s unions and its leaders ”“ are railing against Gov. David Paterson”™s attempt to further reform the nearly century-old legislation, which was amended in 2008 to allow certain school districts to be exempted from having separate contractors for electric, plumbing and HVAC.
Under the newly proposed changes, Paterson is asking the Legislature to repeal Wicks Law requirements for all school districts, not just those in New York City, Buffalo and a handful of others. Paterson asserts Wicks Law, as it now stands, adds another $200 million annually in capital costs to the state, a situation deemed untenable in light of today”™s fiscal realities. The proposed change would not affect other state capital construction projects, either under way or in the future.
In an article published in the Westchester County Business Journal in March, state lawmakers from that county said they will push for repeal of the aging law to save school district dollars. Assemblywomen Sandy Galen and Amy Paulin, along with state Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer, joined with school officials, demanding Albany give Hudson Valley taxpayers the same benefit as New York City. Croton-Harmon”™s school board President Karen Zevin said at the time that Wicks implementation would result in millions of dollars of additional construction expenses against her district”™s $36 million bond for expansions at its three schools, amounting to a 1 percent increase in the current school tax levy.
In a letter dated March 26 to Paterson, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, Assemblyman Greg Ball, along with Edward Doyle, president of the Building Construction Trades Council of Westchester and Putnam Counties, and Ross Pepe, president of the Construction Industry Council of Westchester and the Hudson Valley, agreed that “savings should be made available to the taxpayers, but recent comments from legislators and executive staff about additional costs imposed by Wicks are simply not true after the 2008 reforms.”
Ball, Doyle and Pepe stated that New York City schools are required to conduct all construction projects under the terms of a Project Labor Agreement (PLA), “an option that all other school districts in the state clearly have available to them under the current law.”
The trio went on to say that PLA”™s have been in effect in Westchester and Putnam counties for the past decade and resulted in the successful completion of over $7 billion in new construction with no interruptions in work as the result of labor disputes; further, the Tappan Zee Bridge/I-287 construction, projected to cost more than $600 million, “has not lost a single hour in productivity under its project labor agreement.”
Doyle, Pepe and Ball reiterated their belief that “the Wicks law ”“ as most recently amended and now used by numerous owners of public works and school construction projects ”“ contains important improvements and far-reaching benefits to taxpayers and public entities” and, they conclude, the current Wicks Law should continue without further modification.
Should Albany ever be able to come together and agree to pass a budget, the two sides of the Wicks dispute are alternatively hoping for the new reforms or for the law as currently written to hold on without any further changes.
Editor”™s note: Reporter John Golden contributed to this article.
