Effort to repeal Michigan prevailing wage law moves ahead

LANSING — The state Court Appeals ordered the state Board of Canvassers to certify a petition that is aimed at repealing the state's prevailing wage law.

"The issue presented is whether the Board of State Canvassers has a clear legal duty to certify an initiative petition despite that some of the petition circulators may have claimed fraudulent residential addresses," the court ruled. "The statutory sanctions for any such irregularities do not include disqualifying elector signatures."

Michigan's prevailing wage requires union-scale wages for public construction projects and has been heralded as a way to protect middle-class wages by organized labor, but derided by Republicans and some in the business community as a drain on taxpayer dollars.

Jeff Wiggins, President of Protecting Michigan Taxpayers and executive director of the Associated Builders and Contractors which led the effort to repeal the prevailing wage law, said the court ruling validated the sentiments of nearly 400,000 people who signed their petitions.

"While it was unfortunate that they were forced to appeal to the judiciary to exercise these rights, the Court rightly found that their voices must be heard," he said in a statement. "As the court unanimously gave this judgement immediate effect, we strongly urge the Board of Canvassers to respect the Court’s decision and certify the petition immediately.”

The Board of Canvassers has scheduled a meeting for 2 p.m. Tuesday to consider certifying the petition.

More: Repeal of Michigan's prevailing wage law heading to court

More: Michigan OKs form of marijuana, prevailing wage petitions

The court's opinion resolved a 2-2 tie on the canvassers board last month. The two Republicans on the board — Norm Shinkle and Colleen Pero — voted to approve the signatures on the petitions, agreeing with the Secretary of State's Bureau of Elections, which said it had 100% confidence that there were enough signatures on the petitions to put the issue either to the Legislature or on the ballot in November.

But the two Democrats on the board — Julie Matuzak and Jeannette Bradshaw — agreed with the opponents of the ballot proposal, who argued that the circulators of the petitions had filed fraudulent addresses for their residences, including homeless shelters, U.S. postal offices, hotels and abandoned homes.

The court ruled that only obviously fraudulent signatures could be discarded, not ones that included errors committed by the petition circulators.

Opponents of the prevailing wage repeal said they will take the matter up with the Michigan Supreme Court.

“This decision calls into question the entire initiative process. You will no longer need honest circulators because this ruling allows people to lie about the basic fundamentals of the signature collection process," said Andrea Hansen, legal counsel for Protect Michigan Jobs, the main opponents of the proposal. “We will be asking the Michigan Supreme Court for immediate application for leave to take up our appeal. The integrity of Michigan initiative process depends on their judgement."

After the Board of State Canvassers officially certifies the petition, the Legislature has three options: vote on the issue and if it passes, it automatically becomes law; come up with a competing proposal for the ballot; or do nothing and the issue goes to the November election.

The Republican leaders of the both the House and Senate have said that the issue remains a top priority and they intend to bring it up for a vote in the Legislature before they break for the summer in mid-June.

While the issue has been a top priority for GOP legislators, they have been thwarted by Gov. Rick Snyder, who has threatened to veto such legislation. He believes it would hamper the state's efforts to attract desperately needed skilled trade workers to the state.

So the Protecting Michigan Taxpayers group embarked on two petition drives to repeal the prevailing wage. The first one ended when the group turned in petitions that were riddled with duplicate and fraudulent signatures. The second petition — the first filed this election cycle — had the signatures and the support of the state Bureau of Elections, but has always been opposed by organized labor.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal