Marty Golden may have a labor problem on his hands, according to an unhappy political operative who had been working to get prevailing wage guarantees inserted into a tax break for developers.
The tax break, 421a, will not include a requirement that developers of any project over 80 units pay workers a prevailing wage — which would be a boon to unionized labor. Without the requirement, developers get a tax break and can, theoretically, pay workers a lower wage.
One of New York City’s Republican State Senators, Andrew Lanza, signed onto a Democrat’s proposal that included the prevailing wage requirement. Golden, the city’s only other Republican State Senator, did not.
“Lanza gets a pass,” this political operative said to me. Golden, he said, doesn’t.
Golden told me he did “everything I could” to get prevailing wage included in the deal. (He proposed having it affect projects 120 units or larger, thinking it would get negotiated down to 100, he said.)
Golden said two other, more powerful people, opposed the measure.
“The governor was against it,” said Golden, who then, rhetorically asked, “If it was so important why didn’t Shelly Silver get it done?”
