Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is getting slammed for an opinion her office issued in response to Democratic Arizona State Catherine Miranda, regarding the legality of prevailing wage ordinances. Mayes released an opinion this week, finding prevailing wage requirements to be legal.
Arizona State Senator T.J. Shope tweeted: “This is a completely outside of the law interpretation by @AZAGMayes @krismayes. If this were legal, why have the unions run bills at the Legislature every year to make prevailing wage legal, including a bill I once ran? I don’t have a problem with cities entering in to contracts with labor per se but do it the right way AND legally. My hope is a lawsuit will be filed immediately to challenge this ILLEGAL opinion by the AG. The AG should have run for Legislature if she wanted to enact law.”
Shope tagged the Goldwater Institute in his tweet.
In April, after pressure from the Goldwater Institute, the Phoenix City Council repealed its “prevailing wage” mandate.
The “Prevailing Wage Ordinance for City Projects”ordinance would have restricted qualified businesses from competing for taxpayer-funded public-works projects costing more than $250,000, unless they complied with a host of new requirements.
Goldwater pointed out that the ordinance wasn’t just bad policy; it was illegal. In particular, it violated a voter-approved state statute, A.R.S. § 34-321, that prohibits cities from doing precisely what Phoenix did: imposing “prevailing wage” requirements on public-works contractors.
Goldwater also argued that the requirements hurt small businesses, minorities, younger workers, and all taxpayers in the process.
Goldwater believed the repeal was “a victory for Phoenix residents and taxpayers, who benefit when private businesses are allowed to compete to provide the public with the best services at the best price.”
The ordinance would have had many detrimental effects, cutting into businesses’ already-thin margins and making it cost-prohibitive for them to hire entry-level employees, while also forcing taxpayers to pay more and wait longer for public projects to get done.
Miranda filed what is known as an SB1487 complaint with Mayes asking if an ordinance forcing contractors on public works projects of more than $250,000 to match the wages of union workers in the area is illegal.
Under A.R.S. §41-194.01, legislators may request of the Arizona Attorney General to investigate and report as to whether an ordinance violates state law. Once submitted, the Attorney General’s Office has 30 days to issue a report of its conclusion. Should a municipality or county be found to to be in violation of the law, it has 30 days to change course or risk of losing a share of their state funds.
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