LI developers: 'This can't happen'

Daily Point

A prevailing fight

As state lawmakers enter their last week of this year’s legislative session in Albany, Long Island’s biggest developers are paying particular attention to one bill still making its way through the State Senate and Assembly: a measure that would expand the use of prevailing wage, the higher hourly wage that’s often negotiated in collective bargaining agreements and paid to union workers.

But while they’re encouraging local legislators to oppose the proposal, the building community, led by the Long Island Builders Institute, is also playing the long game. At a fundraiser LIBI held for Gov. Kathy Hochul at its Melville offices late last month, about 25 of the Island’s largest developers raised money for the governor, while simultaneously warning her that the legislation would badly hurt the residential and commercial construction across the region.

"We said, ‘This can’t happen,’" LIBI executive director Mike Florio told The Point. "We’ve made it very clear: If this happens, it’s game over."

Under the proposal, any project that receives total public funds from any level of government that amount to 20% of total construction costs would have to pay prevailing wage, a change from the current law, which maintains a 30% threshold. The new bill also would get rid of the Public Subsidy Board, which currently acts to determine which projects must pay prevailing wage — and which don’t.

LIBI is part of a statewide coalition of organizations that have been fighting the effort to expand prevailing wage requirements. But the audience with Hochul, Florio said, represented a particular opportunity for local developers.

Florio recounted a moment during the event with Hochul when he asked those in the room whether they had ongoing development efforts in other states. Nearly every hand shot up. But more importantly, Florio said, the ratio has shifted. As of a few years ago, most LIBI members were doing 75% of their work on Long Island and 25% off Long Island. That’s already starting to change, but with the proposed prevailing wage expansion, which builders say would increase their costs substantially, those numbers would entirely flip, and many developers would leave the Island altogether.

"We said, ‘If this were to happen, we’re done here. We’ll pick up and go elsewhere,'" Florio said. "And she got the message."

The pending bill to expand the wage is being driven by organized labor and among its listed co-sponsors are many Long Island Democratic Assembly members, including Noah Burroughs, Judy Griffin, Rebecca Kassay, Chuck Lavine, Kwani O’Pharrow, Phil Ramos and Tommy John Schiavoni.

While an audience with the governor often leads to a host of topics being discussed, this event, Florio said, was a bit different.

"This was the main ask in the room," he said.

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Fires

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Final Point

Navy vet from LI tapped as NY-NJ HUD head

Long Islander Jason G. Loughran is the new regional manager for New York and New Jersey of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The 38-year-old Massapequa resident is a decorated Navy veteran who served in the war in Afghanistan and most recently worked as senior adviser for intergovernmental affairs at the New York City Department of Veterans’ Services.

In this region’s partisan constellation, it may be surprising that Loughran doesn’t come from the Nassau Republican organization, a traditional route for finding government jobs. Off the Island, he was co-founder of the veterans’ caucus of the Manhattan-based New York Young Republican Club (led by MAGA booster Gavin Wax), a group with its own ties to President Donald Trump, who picked Loughran’s boss, new HUD Secretary Scott Turner.

On his LinkedIn page, Loughran extends "special thanks to my good friend and mentor, Lynne Patton for everything she has done for this region and for my own personal and professional growth." Patton, who’s now White House director of minority outreach, headed the same HUD Region II office during Trump’s first term.

Loughran heads to HUD on a similar route that Long Islander Anthony Figliola is taking to a position in the federal Department of Health and Human Services — that is, not via the official party organization. While Figliola has recently been a Suffolk County health official under County Executive Ed Romaine, neither Romaine nor county GOP chairman Jesse Garcia seems to have acted as sponsor.

For his part, Loughran said he’s "continuing a life of service that began in the military and carried through roles at every level of government, from New York City to the State Capitol." Loughran told The Point on Friday that he grew up in Oceanside and graduated from Oceanside High School. He has a bachelor’s degree from St. John’s University and a master’s from Baruch College.

Over the years, he’s worked in the state Assembly, the U.S. State Department, and Department of Homeland Security.

In his recent city veterans’ post, he’s credited with launching an interagency initiative with HUD, the Veterans Affairs and local governments to provide housing for "disconnected veterans who were formerly homeless and ineligible for traditional housing benefits," according to his online bio. His current career niche is clear: He founded the America First Veterans Association Inc., a nonprofit 501 (c)(4) social welfare organization established last year.

On Friday, Loughran accompanied Turner for a visit to the New York Stock Exchange in lower Manhattan and a tour of a New York City Housing Authority property.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

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