Will Prince William Waste $300K for PLA Consultants?

Unless Stopped, Prince William’s PLA Costs Are Just Getting Started

Attention Prince William County taxpayers!  On October 28, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors will vote on whether to transfer $300,000 in taxpayer funds from the County’s contingency account to pay for pricey consultants to help develop and implement a costly and discriminatory Project Labor Agreements (PLA) policy.

According to the County’s staff report, the money would fund “on-call consulting services” to conduct PLA feasibility studies, evaluate projects for PLA consideration, and propose changes to County procurement regulations to include PLAs. In other words, Prince William taxpayers would be footing the bill so consultants can show the Board how to expand costly union monopolies across future county projects.

If that sounds familiar, it should. Loudoun County did the same thing last year - hiring consultants to “assist in the development, implementation, and oversight” of its new PLA program. And in Prince William County earlier this year, the School Board quietly approved a PLA for its 14th high school with virtually no public input - a decision Virginians for Fairness criticized as a costly experiment with taxpayer dollars. Now the County Board of Supervisors appears ready to follow suit, opening the door to the same higher costs and reduced competition that have plagued PLA-mandated projects elsewhere.

Research shows PLAs can increase project costs by 12 to 20 percent or more by discouraging local, nonunion contractors from bidding. Those cost increases don’t come out of thin air - they’re paid by taxpayers in the form of higher property taxes or fewer public investments in schools, roads, and essential services.

Prince William’s $300,000 consultant plan is just the first installment of those costs. The next will come when fewer bidders and higher construction expenses start hitting the county budget - and taxpayers are asked to make up the difference.