Nice post. I learn something more challenging on different blogs everyday. Thanks for sharing.

As i've said to my dad...just because its on the internet doesn't make it true. its quite unfortunate that you've decided to use stuff from a "think tank" that's made its name attacking prevailing wages without any real substance behind their work. When citing research, most folks will try to find work that's been reviewed by other researchers and has a transparent methodology and results that can be replicated. This is why most PW supporters will base their statements with studies that have been published in academic journals, put out by university economics departments, produced by government agencies, or are otherwise fully transparent.

As for the claim that without PW everyone can bid, that's actually an upside down claim. When projects have PW requirements all it mandates is that the competition is determined based on management quality and productivity, rather than how much someone can drive down wages. No-one is restricted from bidding a PW job except those disbarred by the state or public agency. What researchers and successful public works officials have seen is that eliminating prevailing wages actually restricts the bidding pool because lots of contractors won't touch those jobs for the simple reason that in a "lowest bid" environment the low-ball contractor has every incentive to put in a low bid to win the work then hit rack up costs on the back end or delay the project. Since submitting a bid costs money, good contractors don't even want to take that risk. Gilroy's public works director speaks about this at length at this link.
http://gilroy.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_i...

save 25-38% percent on construction costs from eliminating prevailing wages? really...where do they come up with this stuff?

here's the math: labor and fringes typically make up less than a quarter of construction costs. the advertised savings is mathematically impossible unless the workers actually pay their boss for the privilege of a job. in reality prevailing wages do not run up the cost of construction but instead promote increased productivity and local economic development. the research is virtually unanimous on this score.

check out <a href="http://www.smartcitiesprevail.org" target="_blank">www.smartcitiesprevail.org to find out more