Barrington president lobbies on prevailing wage, workers' comp

Barrington Village President Karen Darch was among local officials who lobbied for legislation Tuesday that she says will make local governments more efficient.

The proposal would exempt some municipal projects from prevailing wage requirements, change workers' compensation rules and automatically release some state money for local governments that this year had been tied up in the budget impasse.

Money for local governments from the motor fuel tax and video and casino gambling, for example, was held up until December when the legislature passed a bill releasing it.

"The automatic appropriation of those funds would be really important for allowing us to keep local control," Darch said.

Gov. Bruce Rauner has proposed some of the same prevailing wage ideas, which Democrats have decried as anti-union. That dispute is one of the fundamentals of the eight-month budget impasse, which has no clear end in sight.

Brad Cole, executive director of the Illinois Municipal League, said many towns have been pushing for the changes for years.

"Municipalities and local elected officials have been talking about these issues for decades," Cole said.

Democratic state Rep. Marty Moylan, a former mayor of Des Plaines, said he does not support exemptions to prevailing wage.

"You have to save billions of dollars," he said of the state's deficit. "Prevailing wage (exemption) isn't going to get you there."