Assembly Republicans target prevailing wage law, retirement system

CARSON CITY — Assembly Republican leaders on Thursday said they will push for major changes to the state’s prevailing wage law and the public employees retirement system this session, but they are not looking to make bargains to accomplish their agenda.

Assembly Minority Leader Pat Hickey, R-Reno, said he believes Democratic Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick is willing to have open policy discussions on the GOP proposals.

“We’re not looking to trade at this point,” he said. “We’re here to present what we think are reasonable cost-saving measures that could help the state now.”

Republicans, who are outnumbered in both the Assembly and Senate, face an uphill battle, however, to get their agenda to GOP Gov. Brian Sandoval’s desk for his signature.

Efforts to make such changes in past sessions have been thwarted because of strong resistance from Democrats, public employee groups and unions.

SPEAKER: GOP BILLS WILL BE HEARD

Kirkpatrick said there have been ongoing policy discussions that have included Republicans from the first day of the session. She said committee chairs will do all they can to ensure all bills get a hearing.

But Kirkpatrick noted that Sandoval supports an analysis of the retirement system to generate information for policymakers before any changes are considered.

That information is not expected to be available until after the close of the 2013 session.

Assembly Majority Leader William Horne, D-Las Vegas, was more blunt, saying the GOP agenda “attacks workers and does nothing to adequately fund education or create jobs.”

Horne said he is willing to work with Republicans but expressed disappointment that they are “retreading the same partisan attacks they’ve lobbed in previous legislative sessions.”

PERS PROPOSAL

The proposed changes to the Public Employees Retirement System by Republicans would be especially dramatic, with Assemblyman Randy Kirner,
R-Reno, seeking to change the plan for future public employees to primarily a 401(k)-type defined contribution plan, in which in which a certain amount or percentage of money is set aside each year by a company for the benefit of the employee.

The change from the current defined- benefit plan, in which employees get a guaranteed pension based on salary and years of service, would help to get the public retirement system’s $11.2 billion long-term unfunded liability under control, Kirner said.

His proposed changes would save the state general fund an estimated $30 million in the 2014-15 fiscal year because of reduced contribution rates required by the state. That money could be put to needs in the state’s public education system, he said.

Kirner said public employee retirement benefits would remain intact with his proposal, but that is because retirement age for the defined benefit portion of the plan would be tied to the retirement age for Social Security. He would do away with a current provision allowing public employees to retire at any age with 30 years of service.

PREVAILING WAGE PROPOSAL

Assemblyman Cresent Hardy, R-Mesquite, said he and colleague John Ellison, R-Elko, will bring bills to change the state’s prevailing wage law for public construction projects to reduce labor costs and make state tax dollars go further.

A major provision would exempt public and higher education projects from the prevailing wage law, he said. Another would raise the threshold exempting public works projects from prevailing wage rules from the current $100,000 to
$1.5 million.

Nevada’s prevailing wage law requires contractors who win publicly financed construction projects to pay workers according to a wage schedule established by the state’s labor commissioner.

Public projects cost 25 percent more than private projects because the prevailing wage law inflates the wages that must be paid to workers, Hardy said.

Reducing those costs would make more money available for public works projects and would create more jobs, he said.

CAUCUS’ GOAL: CUT WASTE

Assemblywoman Melissa Woodbury, R-Las Vegas, a special education teacher in the Clark County School District, said the caucus education agenda focuses on proposals that would cut waste, increase productivity and give educators more flexibility.

The additional $300 million Democrats want to spend on public education in the upcoming two years is unreasonable and will hurt the state’s fragile economy, she said.

Hickey said Assembly Republicans also are opposed to the mining tax proposal unveiled by Senate Republican leaders on Tuesday.

Any tax proposal that focuses on a single industry is not good policy, he said.

Hickey said the caucus also agrees that raising taxes in the current session is a bad idea because of Nevada’s slow recovery from the Great Recession. But there is support for tax-neutral reforms to the state’s tax structure that could, in future years, result in increased revenues that could be used for public education and other important programs, he said.

Contact Capital Bureau reporter Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3900.