When Board Chairman William Pantazis thanked Northborough's legislators for visiting its meeting on Monday, he added that he appreciated having the chance for the town to "put them on the grill." And while on that grill on Monday night, at no point did the flames heat up the grid more than during the discussion about prevailing wages and municipal construction laws.
It wasn't one of Northborough's two top priorities for its annual "legislative top priorities list,"but it was among bulleted list of eight items that it asked state Sen. Harriette Chandler, state Sen. Jamie Eldridge, state Rep. Harold Naughton and state Rep. Danielle Gregoire to turn its concerns if possible.
Modernizing procurement and public construction laws has been a repeat priority for Northborough.
As Town Administrator John Coderre explained, the prevailing wages that must be paid to workers hired for a municipal construction job are sometimes nearly double that of wages paid by local contractors. It prevents the town from hiring local contractors. The town is asking that for jobs $100,000 and under, that these mandates be exempt.
"It is ironic that a law, which was initiated to encourage the award of contracts to local tradesmen, would have the opposite effect," reads the letter to the legislators.
"What is the logic of the prevailing wage, other than a gift to the labor unions," cracked frustrated board member Jeff Amberson.
Eldridge responded that "philosophically speaking, the idea is that it raises the living wage and then has an effect throughout the region. Government having a lead on that raises the wages all around. Part of the mission of government is to pay a living wage to people."
What winds up happening instead, argued Coderre, is that it creates mountains of confusing paperwork for contractors and forces them to pay its workers much higher wages. Coderre, as with last year, gave concrete examples of its negative effects.
"If someone had to paint a wall in this room," said Coderre, "I'd have to secure payroll, fill out paperwork with the state and give a prevailing wage. We're talking about routine repairs and routine work ... we had to get a company from Rhode Island last year because it was so hard to get a company to do work."
Eldridge, and also urging from Naughton and Chandler, suggested that Northborough call for a "home rule," and lower the maximum to $50,000. Home rule allows a town to implement its own changes to law different from that of of the state. Under this premise, Northborough added three warrant articles for this year's town meeting to address construction laws, as well an amendment that would allow insurance claims below $20,000 be spent without appropriation, and insurance proceeds from property claims be spent without appropriation.
"I truly believe your best bet is a home rule approach," said Chandler. "You'll get a significant response to it in a way you wouldn't in general legislation."
While discussion surrounded construction laws, officially, Northborough's two top priorities for FY2014 are to restore Circuit Breaker funding (which is money for mandated special education costs) and increase Chapter 90 money (funds for road and highway maintenance).
When originally instituted, 75 percent of special education funds was promised back to the town to alleviate the high cost of students who are educated in town. It has trickled to around 60 percent, and Northborough is urging legislators to work to get it back to 75.
"I am in full support of the Circuit Breaker funding," said Eldridge. "That would mean going up from $230,000 million to $255,000 million for the state."
Chandler called Northborough a "special situation," and one she has noticed since representing the town. "You're very close to Framingham and you're very close to a program they offer," she said. "They live here to take advantage of that. It's a problem here and it's more of a problem than it would be in most communities. You just never know when a special education student will move in your town and that puts an in incredible burden on your budget. Your Circuit Breaker funding is very different than other communities I represent. I will do everything I can to restore the funding. I think you will find we all feel this way; just providing the transportation costs is enormous and we are aware of the promises that were made."
A "major major" transportation bond bill is set to be filed this year, said Chandler, and that legislators will "try everything we can to raise the Chapter 90 funds to $300,000 million for the state."
Asked what legislators expected towns should see for local aid, Naughton added, "The conservative approach is level funding at this point."
Board member Leslie Rutan asked Chandler if she sees commonalities when visiting some of the other communities. "Some of our requests seem so reasonable, I'd be surprised if some of the other towns aren't asking the same things," said Rutan.
"Well, I think you have an exceptionally efficient town manager, so we don't generally get a list of priorities like this. We just don't see it that often. It's one thing to speak in generalities and it's another to be specific."