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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T





SPONSOR: Lyons DATE TYPED: 02/09/00 HB
SHORT TITLE: Increase Amount of Public Works Contracts SB 230
ANALYST: Taylor


APPROPRIATION



Appropriation Contained
Estimated Additional Impact
Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY00 FY01 FY00 FY01
NFI



Duplicates HB249



SOURCES OF INFORMATION



New Mexico Labor Department

Commission on Higher Education



SUMMARY



Synopsis of Bill



Senate Bill 230 increases the dollar threshold above which public works projects and contracts are subject to prevailing wage requirements. Currently any public works project with a value greater than $20 thousand is required to pay laborers and mechanics the prevailing wage for similar work in the state or locality. The bill would increase the minimum value from $20 thousand to $250 thousand.



FISCAL IMPLICATIONS



The New Mexico labor department reports that the bill would have a minimal impact on revenues because raising the threshold will result in fewer projects to subject to the public works' minimum wage act. Enforcing the act provides the department with between $112 thousand and $140 thousand in revenue annually, but only some of this is from smaller projects. The department also reports that raising the threshold will result in less time being spent on monitoring payrolls and conducting wage inspections of smaller projects, thereby freeing more time to monitor larger projects.



OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES



The labor department reports that based on FY 99 statistics, raising the threshold would affect about 14 percent of public works' projects, and representing 6.5 percent of the value of all public work's projects.



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