Master Builders of Iowa

(The following is text from a press release issued on August 24, 2010.  The press release focuses on the Regents’ unwillingness to abide by Iowa reciprocal preference law.)

Des Moines, IA - The Master Builders of Iowa has estimated a loss of between 150 and 175 Iowa construction jobs as a result of the recent Iowa Board of Regents award of the $71 million project to Walsh Construction Company II, LLC, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.  The MBI claim on Iowa jobs losses comes on the heels of the failure of the Iowa Board of Regents to consider a response to a newly enacted Illinois preference law designed to protect Illinois business and workers against out-of-state competition.   The Illinois restrictive law (called the Illinois Preference Act, HF-6349) went into effect on June, 15, 2010.  The newly enacted law requires non-Illinois/ out-of-state contractors to demonstrate that 90 percent of the workers on the project are residents of the state of Illinois.  Current Iowa law (Iowa code 73A.21) is a reciprocal preference law, which provides that contractors from other states that enact preference laws, such as Illinois and Missouri, will be held to the same restrictions when bidding on projects in Iowa.

The Regents rejected legal arguments presented by the Master Builders of Iowa asking that the Iowa law requiring the Illinois-based Walsh Construction Company to come under the same requirements as the Illinois law demands of Iowa contractors when bidding projects in Illinois.  The legal arguments were rejected by Regents legal counsel with no explanation, other than there is no legal responsibility for the Regents to respond to the new Illinois preference law.

“We are opposed to preference legislation in general and the fence building that Illinois has enacted is bad public policy in our view”, said Scott Norvell, President and CEO of Master Builders of Iowa, an Iowa statewide contractor association. “That said, we believe that that the Iowa Board of Regents have a right and a responsibly to respond in-kind to the Illinois law and that means holding Illinois businesses accountable to the intent, spirit and letter of Illinois law (and the Iowa law).”  Norvell continued, “To summarily dismiss this issue is costing Iowa jobs and is worsening very high rates of unemployment in Iowa’s construction Industry.  We are more than disappointed with the decision of the Regents and see this clearly as a ‘if it is good for the goose, it is good for the gander’ issue. “

The  preference issue of  is not likely to disappear as the Iowa Department of Administrative Service may inherit the same problems when the Fort Madison prison project bids on September the 8th, 2010. “It is important to note that this particular project, per an Executive Order by Governor Culver, already carries the controversial Project Labor Agreement preference.   Norvell commented, “It should get very interesting when you add the PLA controversy to the Missouri and Illinois preference acts.”

The Master Builders of Iowa is an Iowa trade association composed of over 2,000 businesses in and associated with the Iowa construction industry.