Prevailing wage law repeal meets organized opposition

JEFFERSON CITY — Imagine a river valley, Rep. Warren Love said, where a few ranchers paid off the law and hired vigilantes to keep away shepherds and homesteaders from the grass and water they controlled.

This was how Love, R-Osceola, characterized the conditions created by Missouri's prevailing wage law, during a hearing of the Senate General Laws Committee on Wednesday.

For Love, a fan of Western life, the river valley represents public construction projects; the ranchers represent union labor; the hired guns are lobbyists; and the traveling shepherds are the people whose interests Love says he has in mind.

"All we're wanting to do is to create an economic development in the state of Missouri so that there will be a sharing of that grass and water with other sheepherders and homesteaders that want to be workers," Love said. He added that while there would no doubt be significant opposition, his proposal was supported by county officials and school district representatives who wanted lower prices for public projects.

Read more: http://www.news-leader.com/story/news/politics/2017/04/06/prevailing-wage-law-repeal-meets-organized-opposition/100090620/