The Los Angeles Times and others have portrayed bankrupt Stockton as a victim of circumstance because of a falling economy and a crashing home market. (I'm sure new bankruptcy "victims" of Mammoth Lakes and San Bernardino couldn't help what happened to them either, according to this argument.) But here's evidence that Stockton purposefully avoided a chance to save money on labor costs in order to placate labor unions. As a charter city, Stockton could have exempted itself from prevailing-wage requirements, but this study shows it opted not to do so. Earlier this month, the California Supreme Court upheld the ability of charter cities to impose their own wage requirements. Cities don't need additional taxing mechanisms or to be told that they are victims of circumstance.
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The economics of prevailing wages are essentially settled facts only in dispute by right wing cranks and the low-wage construction lobby. The claim that elimination of prevailing wages results in cost savings has been thoroughly debunked in a variety of authoritative studies by academic economists and public agencies in California and throughout the nation. Because direct construction labor typically comprises less than a quarter of a total project’s cost, the types of savings often claimed by prevailing wage opponents are simply impossible to achieve. In fact, what we’ve seen over the past several years is that public works construction prices have come down dramatically due to the massive shrinkage of demand for construction services. Claims that removing prevailing wage will save on total construction costs simply don’t pass the laugh test.