Remember when Phil Garthwaite Increased the Price of the Platteville Police Station by $80,000 in a Single Vote?

As the election approaches, Rep. Phil Garthwaite is running from his record faster than his Madison-Milwaukee high speed rail project is pulling dollars away from Grant County’s infrastructure.

It’s our job to remind him of the poor decisions he’s made over the last two years and the negative impact they are having on our community.

Take the prevailing wage for instance.

Back in 1931 a group of progressive (mostly progressive Republican) Congressman enacted the Davis-Bacon Act creating the first national prevailing wage law. At the time their goal was simple - stop minority workers, mainly southern blacks, from competing with white construction unions.

Over the years prevailing wage laws have evolved. Although they still have the presumably unintended consequence of reducing the number of government construction contracts awarded to minority and women owned firms, this is no longer their primary intent. Today prevailing wage laws are enforced in many states to keep small businesses from underbidding large union shops for public construction contracts. They also dramatically increase costs for Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer.

During the last state budget, Rep. Garthwaite was the deciding vote in favor of a law change that has mandated the use of a much expanded prevailing wage, increasing the costs of public projects statewide by millions of dollars and taking away work from countless struggling non-union construction firms. He was given four opportunities to amend this provision of the budget. He voted not once, not twice, not three times, but four times to keep these prevailing wage changes in the budget.

These four votes along with a fifth, his deciding vote in favor of the state budget, had immediate negative consequences on Grant County. The cost of Platteville’s new police station, for instance, immediately increased by $80,000. Consider that and then think about all the other public construction projects taking place in Grant County. Think about the increased costs to the taxpayer, not to mention the jobs lost by small local firms as larger regional firms stepped in to take over the prevailing wage work. The costs on Grant County have been substantial.

Executive Director of the Platteville Area Industrial Development Corporation, George Krueger, said it best in his July 15, 2009 column in the Platteville Journal:

“The State of Wisconsin budget passed recently. It is anti-business, anti-capitol, and anti-development. A big negative impact on economic development is the prevailing wage policy that was passed as part of the budget.”

PAIDC Director Krueger went on to explain that Garthwaite’s vote increased the costs of the Holmen St. project in Platteville by 43% even as they used the exact same contractor to do the exact same work.

How about that for government waste and abuse of power? Garthwaite passed a law that forced a contractor to charge Platteville 43% more for a project and made the city pay. It would be laughable if it weren’t true.

Krueger also explained the state is now applying the prevailing wage to many private projects. It’s not just the taxpayer that is on the hook for increased costs. Private developers are too and that means even less development and fewer jobs.

Take a moment to think about all the projects that aren’t getting done now because the legislature increased costs so dramatically in the middle of a recession. Think about all the jobs lost in Grant County.

Talk to a small local contractor. Chances are they’ve lost out on a bid to a larger regional firm because of this law. Think again about all the jobs lost in Grant County.

Think about those jobs that we should have but don’t. Then think about the fact that our very own Representative Phil Garthwaite is responsible.



Scans of Krueger's Column: