It appears that Democrats in the Missouri Senate have successfully stopped legislation that would have redefined what constitutes a maintenance project and exempted those being done on public property from the state’s prevailing wage requirement.
The bill would define “maintenance” as being routine and recurring work that does not exceed $75,000 dollars. Democrats spent most of Monday night blocking the bill. When it became apparent that an agreement was out of reach, GOP Senator Mike Parson of Polk County asked that the bill be laid aside, but not before telling Democrat Gina Walsh of St. Louis County that the issue’s not going away.
“A lot of people are pretty serious about this issue,” Parson told Walsh, who said, “I am, too, Senator.”
Under current law, maintenance work does not fall under the prevailing wage, but a Missouri Supreme Court ruling two years ago expanded the definition of “construction” and caused more projects to be subject to the wage requirement. Unless there’s a breakthrough by Friday, the bill is likely dead for this year.