I could personally care less about "losses" to government of tax revenues. It's all stolen money anyway, not a "loss." I am, however, highly unhappy about the illegals being in my country. I hope that the construction industry is a bellweather of change in companies demanding enforcement of immigration laws.
By not properly enforcing the new law, notes File, the state is losing out on unpaid taxes because "cheating" contractors fail to pay workers' compensation, health insurance and benefit costs.
For example, File says while New Mexico's unionized contractors have to pay a standard wage of $17.32 per hour plus another $4 in benefits, so-called cheating competitors can get the work done for $10 an hour because they hire cheaper labor without paying the appropriate taxes.
Ben Martinez, department manager at Harrison Contracting Co. is happy the state is doing something, but he's taking a wait-and-see approach.
"This is a pretty unfair practice in my opinion and if they enforce this, I'm glad, because I'd rather have it than not -- but enforcement is a different story," says Martinez.
John Horton, director of public policy and government relations for the Associated General Contractors New Mexico Building Branch, says future meetings could salvage what otherwise could collect dust as a law. However, Horton questions where further funding will come from.
"Over the last year, the Department of Labor's budget [has been] like a jar of liquid with the top left off and it has slowly evaporated. The bill says nothing about this," says Horton. "If we can demonstrate a real severe problem then we can seek more funding."
Mike Shea, political director for the Mountain West Regional Council of Carpenters, said he believes the new law will be enforced and points to last week's meeting of industry leaders and future scheduled meetings as evidence something is being done. Shea says the meetings will help prepare those in the industry for when they come across unscrupulous contractors.
"A lot of the time a bill passes and it's not worth the paper its written on, but we wanted to make sure this didn't happen," says Shea.
Shea says more funding is important and officials have discussed seeking additional money to help the state agency enforce the new law."I can't speak for the other agencies, but the Department of Labor is working with a skeleton crew right now. They had about 25 percent of their budget taken away and that's a lot of guys putting in a lot of extra drive time," says Shea.
The MWRCC pushed for the legislation last year when it discovered that a number of contractors in the state were hiring undocumented workers and not paying their fair share of taxes.
If I thought the gubmint was simply saying 'oh well, thats that' I'd agree. But if they can't get their $$ from those who can get away with not paying they'll get it from those they hold by the nose - and guess who that is.