June 23, 2015
By LaborPress
In a flier put out last week, Up4NYC, a group backed by New York building trades unions, denounced state Senate Republicans’ efforts to extend the 421-a program as “pitting middle and working class New Yorkers against each other while billionaire developers continue to line their pockets with taxpayer money.” The 421-a program, a tax abatement for new residential construction, expired June 15.
The unions have generally supported it in the past, but want the state to require that construction workers be paid the prevailing wage on buildings with more than 50 units that receive the subsidy. The GOP legislation would create a committee to study the impact of requiring prevailing wages, which the flier said would “kick the can down the road yet again.” Mayor Bill de Blasio has proposed requiring developers in the program to include more “affordable” housing, but not mandating that they pay union-scale wages. The flier said Up4NYC supports extending the program for three months. Read more
