Legislative Information
The following are the Legislative Positions of the MCA of
Central Pennsylvania.
Prevailing Wage:
MCA of Central Pennsylvania supports the prevailing wage law
in Pennsylvania. Prevailing wages allows contractors with
highly trained and fairly compensated workforces to compete
for public projects. Without prevailing wage, the
Commonwealth would ultimately be awarding public works
construction contracts to the contractor who paid the lowest
wages and benefits because such contracts are low bid
awards. Prevailing wage is a minimum wage for construction
trades and makes quality construction and efficiency the
determining factors on project awards. The MCA of CP opposes
efforts to repeal or dilute the intent of the Prevailing
Wage law.
Separations Act:
MCA of Central Pennsylvania supports the Separations Act
which requires public works contracts to have separate
specifications and bids for electrical, heating, plumbing
and ventilating portions of each building project. Since
1934 this law has provided the model method of public works
building construction. It enhances project coordination. By
breaking a project into 4 parts, the Separations Act also
encourages small and medium sized contractors to participate
in public works. Without this law, some of those contractors
may not have sufficient bonding capacity to bid on project
under a single contract. The MCA of CP opposes efforts to
repeal or dilute the intent of the Separations Act.
Retainage:
MCA of Central Pennsylvania supports legislation to
eliminate retainage when the owner has other performance
protections such as a bond. The withholding of retainage
without cause or purpose causes great harm to many
contractors and increases the cost of construction. The
practice of automatically withholding a certain percentage
of a contracts value as "retainage" is clearly inappropriate
on projects in which the contractor has provided a
performance bond.
Municipal Residency Requirements:
MCA of Central Pennsylvania opposes local ordinances which
require that a certain percentage of workers live in a
particular municipality. This type of mandates create an
unworkable constraint on normal construction hiring
practices. Such requirements can also have the unintended
consequence of causing work stoppage and increasing
construction costs. That is particularly true in a tight
labor market where skilled craftsman are in great demand.
The MCA of CP supports passage of a state law prohibiting
municipal residency requirements if the projects in question
involve any State or Federal funds.
Mechanics Lien Reform:
MCA of Central Pennsylvania supports amendments to the
Pennsylvania Mechanics Lien law which would prohibit the
waiving of lien rights prior to the commencement of a
construction project. The concept behind the mechanics lien
is to provide contractors with leverage so that they will be
paid for work performed. Unfortunately, the current law
provides little or no value because the right to lien can
be, and most often is, waived by the prime contractor prior
to the start of work. Requiring the prime to waive all of
the contractors' lien rights has become a standard operating
procedure for most commercial construction. The only way to
rectify this problem is to eliminate the waiver provision in
the law. That one change would restore the true intent of
the Mechanics Lien law.
Legislative Newsletter
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