ALBANY — Lawmakers in Albany are proposing to dissolve a Labor Department board created three years ago to provide oversight of prevailing wage requirements, a move that comes as they are considering lowering the threshold needed to apply those standards to private projects.
The Public Subsidy Board, which has been regarded by some of its own members as ineffective and dysfunctional, was created after state laws were amended in 2020 to require all private construction projects that cost over $5 million and that have received at least 30 percent in public funds to follow prevailing wage requirements.
Democrats in the state Assembly and Senate are now proposing to dissolve the entity, as well as to lower the threshold needed to apply prevailing wage requirements to private projects, from 30 percent to 20 percent of public funding…