Municipalities won a small victory on April 26 at the State Legislative Office Building -- through the joint efforts of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and the Connecticut Municipal Consortium for Fiscal Responsibility -- as the Commerce Committee favorably reported a bill that would, among other things, raise the prevailing wage thresholds to $1 million for both new and renovation projects -- and to index the thresholds in each succeeding year.

The prevailing wage thresholds have not been adjusted in since 1991. Municipal officials have annually pleaded with state leaders to reform this depression-era law that costs towns and cities millions of dollars in inflated wages on local projects. Many states across the country have eliminated this antiquated law altogether.

The amended bill, HB 7319 , was viewed as a long awaited compromise and a serious first step toward meaningful prevailing wage reform and property tax relief for local taxpayers. Local officials are lauding this victory - as they have struggled for years to simply just have legislation publicly heard, let alone favorably voted out of committee. The bill is now expected to go before other committees and its long-term fate is unknown, but for now state legislators have agreed with local officials that the time for change to CT's prevailing wage may be before us sooner rather than later.