Crains New York - June 17, 2013 - (Page 10)

OPINION A house of cards, this idea I n New York’s City Council, few causes get higher priority than organized labor. But one that usually does is affordable housing. Elected officials receive more constituent calls and emails about housing than anything else, so when union-backed wage bills snake their way through City Hall, affordable housing is inevitably exempted. It doesn’t take a mathematician to figure out that when union labor adds 30% or more to construction costs, the result is fewer affordable units, higher rents, or both. That’s why affordable-housing developers were shocked this month when Councilwoman Letitia James suddenly began demanding “prevailing wages” for workers who would build affordable housing for a mixed-use development involving three cultural institutions in her Brooklyn district. The project hinges on a council vote scheduled for Monday. By all appearances, Ms. James was responding to pressure from trade unions that might aid her campaign for public advocate. Until this month, her focus when it came to projects was ensuring that locals and minority- and womenowned contractors got a good chunk of the work. Ironically, the wage mandate she seeks would shift the jobs to union tradespeople, who tend to be white and live outside of her largely black district, and often outside of the city entirely. Our point is not to pick on Ms. James, whose protest vote (should she cast one) should be ignored by her colleagues in the City Council. It’s to flag the effort by some underemployed unions to bully their way into low-rise CRAIN’S ONLINE POLL affordable-housing work. If successful, it would exacerbate the city’s housing shortage and suck money out of minority neighborhoods, where nonunion tradesmen tend to live. Several Democratic mayoral candidates have endorsed this effort, parroting the lame line that special deals called project labor agreements, or PLAs, could hand affordablehousing construction to unions without reducing the number of units built. But PLAs often save less money than expected, and sometimes none at all. Moreover, many of the trade unions that would be needed for these projects want no part of PLAs. The candidates have also said subsidized housing has been shoddily built, pointing to anecdotal examples. Weaving a broad fiction out of isolated cases is a dangerous way to make policy. The facts are, nonunion-built affordable housing across the city has held up nicely, and some union-built affordable housing has been plagued by problems. Affordable-housing construction is employing minority workers at good wages in their own communities, and providing more units than union-built projects could. This model must not be undermined by election-season politics. A ‘prevailing wage’ mandate would worsen the housing shortage COMMENTS Scoffing at scaffold law newscom TEAR DOWN THIS LAW SHOULD THE U.S. PROSECUTE NSA LEAKER EDWARD SNOWDEN? Yes. This was an illegal act. Ignoring it would lead to other confidential information being leaked. No. This man did a public service. Now we’ll have a much-needed debate about government snooping. Date of poll: June 10 293 votes 54% Yes 45% No FOR THIS WEEK’S QUESTIONS: Go to www.crainsnewyork.com/poll to have your say. 10 | Crain’s New York Business | June 17, 2013 Crain’s hit the nail on the head in its recent editorial highlighting the obsolete and costly absolute liability standard of the scaffold law (“New York’s stupidest law,” June 10). The costs of the law are outrageous, and the purported safety benefits are merely a fabrication of the trial-lawyer lobby. Reforming the law would have widespread benefits extending far beyond the construction industry. Of course, New Yorkers have yet another good reason to support reform of the scaffold law—doing so would lower the cost of construction in areas affected by Hurricane Sandy. With more than $30 billion in damage, rebuilding after the storm is a massive undertaking. Thanks to the scaffold law, millions of dollars will be spent on unnecessary insurance and lawsuits, and taxpayers and private citizens will be on the hook for the bill. Moreover, reforming the scaffold law would make New York businesses more competitive, allowing local companies to bid competitively on reconstruction projects. This would generate jobs and tax dollars. New York voters should understand the impacts of the scaffold law and begin asking their elected officials where they stand on reform. —thomas b. stebbins Executive director Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York BLAME INSURERS, NOT WORKERS What’s most amazing about the campaign opposing New York’s scaffold law is that it’s supposedly based on concerns about rising insurance premiums but includes no analysis of the fundamentals driving these costs. When those in charge of projects fail in their responsibility for safety on work at heights and workers suffer what can be catastrophic injuries, compensation under the scaffold law is totally appropriate. New York’s highest court has plainly held that workers have no case if they cause their own injuries by ignoring safety protections the owner or contractor put in place. We share the concern of businesses that insurers appear to be gouging them. Rather than blaming the victims of accidents, we ought to improve safety and bring transparency to the insurance market. That the campaign opposing the scaffold law says nothing about this speaks volumes about its misguided agenda. —gary labarbera President Building and Construction Trades Council CRAIN’S WELCOMES SUBMISSIONS to its opinion pages. Send letters to letters@crainsnewyork.com. Send columns of 475 words or fewer to opinion@crainsnewyork.com. Please include the writer’s name, company, address and telephone number. CRAIN’S NEW YORK BUSINESS editor in chief Rance Crain publisher, vp Jill R. 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All rights reserved. ®CityBusiness is a registered trademark of MCP Inc., used under license agreement. CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS INC. BOARD OF DIRECTORS chairman Keith E. Crain president Rance Crain treasurer Mary Kay Crain Cindi Crain executive vp, operations William Morrow senior vp, group publisher Gloria Scoby vp/production, manufacturing David Kamis chief information officer Paul Dalpiaz founder G.D. Crain Jr. (1885-1973) chairman Mrs. G.D. Crain Jr. (1911-1996) secretary Merrilee Crain (1942-2012) http://www.crainsnewyork.com/subscribe http://www.crainsnewyork.com/advertise http://www.crainsnewyork.com/events http://www.crainsnewyork.com/poll

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crains New York - June 17, 2013

IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
SMALL BUSINESS
BUSINESS PEOPLE
OPINION
GREG DAVID
FOR THE RECORD
REPORT: FORTUNATE 100
THE LIST
REAL ESTATE DEALS
CLASSIFIEDS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crains New York - June 17, 2013