By Roland Murphy for AZBEX
As promised, the Goldwater Institute has filed a lawsuit against the City of Phoenix arising from the City’s recent institution of a prevailing wage for construction workers on most City projects.
AZBEX has reported extensively on the movement to pass prevailing wage ordinances around the state. Our most recent coverage is available here, here and here.
Phoenix’s ordinance sets a required pay rate equivalent to union labor rates based on workers’ positions as defined under an expanded version of the federal Davis-Bacon Act. Multiple industry groups, including Associated Builders and Contractors and the National Association of Home Builders have opposed the expansion, calling it overly broad, unjustified and deliberately harmful to non-union and minority contractors.
Goldwater is suing on behalf of Associated Minority Contractors of Arizona, the Arizona Builders Alliance and the Arizona Chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America.
A 1984 state law prohibits local and county governments from enacting prevailing wage ordinances. In 2006, voters approved a law that let local entities set their own minimum wage requirements. An opinion issued by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes equated prevailing wage with minimum wage and held the 2006 law takes precedence over the 1984 law.
Goldwater also alleges in the lawsuit that the new Phoenix ordinance is a violation of due process rights, since the City Engineer has the power to investigate alleged violations and issue punishments if it sees fit. On its webpage discussing the litigation, Goldwater says, “Moreover, violations of the Ordinance, including minor or inadvertent violations, can result in severe punishment: restitution, triple damages, withholding of contractual payments, and even disqualification from working on future public works contracts.”
The complaint was filed Jan. 23 in Maricopa County Superior Court and asks for an injunction to nullify the ordinance “in its entirety.”
The City has not yet filed a response and no hearing dates have been set.