Opinion

City of Kennett v. Labor & Industrial Relations Commission

  • 610 S.W.2d 623
  • 25 Wage & Hour Cas. (BNA) 516
  • 1981 Mo. LEXIS 296
Court
Supreme Court of Missouri
Filed
Jan 13, 1981
Status
Published
Author
Welliver
On the bench
Higgins, Bardgett, Donnelly, Rendlen, Seiler, Morgan, Welliver
Cited by
15 cases

The opinion

WELLIVER, Judge,

concurring.

I concur.

While I have no doubt that the principal opinion correctly applies the standard of review to the record before us which is mandated by our statutes and enunciated by our cases, nevertheless it is with reluctance that I concur. It would seem that the Prevailing Wage Act, §§ 290.210-290.340, RSMo 1978, as it has been administered by the Industrial Commission, has in effect, made the highest wage in the state the prevailing wage for virtually every county in the state.

Though sympathetic with the position in which the City of Kennett now finds itself, I am not unaware of how that City and other local governments got into this situation. So long as the so-called “free federal *629 dollar” flowed in the form of grants, subsidies, matching dollars and revenue sharing, resistance to legislative acts such as this by local governments and their associations only could be described as feeble or token. Nor have the taxpayers who must pay the bottom line been free from fault. In the expanding and gently inflating economy of the late fifties, sixties and seventies, even taxpayer resistance to acts such as this was noticed mostly by its absence.

Current inflation rates and the resulting economic crisis for local governments now appear to be forcing appellant and other local governments to take a new look at such things as the “prevailing wage” and the public’s demand that they get “more for the tax dollar”. In this background, I feel obligated to point out that until substantially stronger and more favorable factual records can be presented to the courts, judicial relief seems unlikely, and then only on a case by case basis.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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