BIDs up in arms over state Senate bill

The city’s largest business improvement districts are riled over a state Senate bill approved last week that would require them to pay street cleaners and other workers wages of as much as $22 an hour, plus benefits, Crain’s reported. The bill has already drawn fire from public utilities, such as National Grid and Con Edison, which would be forced to pay so-called prevailing wages to service workers under contract in their facilities. The state’s current law exempts public utilities from prevailing-wage rules. The bill amends that law, and also covers service workers at BIDs with revenues of more than $1 million, of which there are at least 13 in the city. About 1,100 workers making as little as $7.41 per hour at the BIDs and $7.75 per hour at the utilities stand to get pay raises under the new regulations. [Crain’s]