Right now, there are close to 2,000 portable classrooms in Washoe and Clark Counties alone because of overcrowding. Couple that with calls from business leaders, parents and both parties to improve education in Nevada, and you'd expect a bill that would create more schools to sail through.
“Except that we’re going to do that by stepping on your parents' backs. It’s the parents versus the kids. That’s what you’re doing with this bill. For someone to have the audacity to put this in front of my face and say it’s about schools...”
That’s Democratic Assemblyman Edgar Flores of Vegas reacting to the GOP’s effort to remove the current requirement that those working on school construction projects receive prevailing wages.
Republican Senator Ben Kieckhefer of Reno included that measure as a sort of trade-off for extending school bonds for another 10 years, which is funded by property taxes.
He says the prevailing wages far exceed what is being offered on the open market.
“And [that] leads to one of two outcomes: the first is that it requires government to take more money from taxpayers to buy the exact same thing, and the second is that government buys less because it’s buying at a unnecessary premium, which is what you’d see with schools.”
And those two opinions reflect the basic contours of the almost four-hour debate over Senate Bill 119, a stand off between labor and conservatives with billions of dollars for Nevada schools on the line.
Skilled trades workers and Nevada contractors were out in force with dozens arguing for maintaining wages for the middle class, including Tom Pourchot, who runs the Reno-based contractor Intermountain Electric:
“What’s going to happen if we do see this is that you’ll see an increase in jobs taken by out-of-state contractors. You’re going to see a decrease in skilled labor because they’re going to go to places where they can make a better wage because they have something to offer. You’re also going to see a decrease in overall wages.”
Others argue the quality of school construction would suffer as wages go down. But GOP lawmakers counter that’s not the case and point to places like Michigan, which suspended its prevailing wages for several years in the '90s and saw increased savings with almost no decrease in quality.
Tray Abney with Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce spoke up in favor of the bill and says local businesses also represent the middle class.
“They deserve for their tax dollars to be spent in the most efficient way possible. This bill could actually put more people to work, more Nevadans, because you could have more projects and build more classrooms.”
Amid this back and forth, some tried to shift the debate and urged lawmakers not to pair school funding and labor issues. Others, including fiscal conservatives, argued lawmakers shouldn’t even consider the bond rollover measure and equate it to a tax increase.
But for school districts, the issue is dire, as Washoe County’s lobbyist Lindsay Anderson made clear:
“As our only source of funding, without the rollover bond, we will face an even bigger hurdle for caring for our existing schools, much less accommodating enrollment growth we’re facing.”
Without substantial school construction funding, Anderson says the district faces more expensive repairs in the future and disruptions to school schedules.
If that sounds familiar, you’re right. It’s the same argument made last session during the debate over Assembly Bill 46—the failed legislation that would have raised taxes to fund school repair projects in Washoe County.
