HARRISBURG -- A Republican senator from Lancaster is calling for a three-year halt to the state's prevailing wage law for construction projects, labeling it an unnecessary tax burden for taxpayers and something that could water down the positive effect of federal stimulus funds.

State Sen. Mike Brubaker, a conservative in his first term, charged that the 48-year-old law artificially inflates labor costs and bumps up the total cost of school construction projects, which the taxpayers ultimately pay through property taxes.

The law, which has long been a concern for fiscal conservatives and municipal and school officials, sets and enforces wage rates for taxpayer-funded construction projects of more than $25,000.

"A school board member in southcentral Pennsylvania feels that school district taxpayers are being held at gunpoint by prevailing wage," Mr. Brubaker said.

Prevailing wages on construction projects, sometimes called union wages, are usually higher than wages paid by nonunion construction companies.

State AFL-CIO President Bill George defended the law, saying it protects workers from unscrupulous contractors who pay low wages and that it results in a better quality of work. Nonunion contractors dispute that latter point.

"This is all about selfishness and greed," Mr. George said. "More profits for the owners and less wages and benefits for the workers."

Prevailing wages are calculated using information from collective bargaining agreements negotiated by various unions across the state, Labor and Industry Department spokesman Justin Fleming said, and they vary depending on the type of work being done and the county. The wages are updated when the department receives new rates from local unions.

With federal stimulus infrastructure projects on the way, Mr. Brubaker said the amount of money lost to higher wage costs could better be used to create more jobs. In 2007 in Allegheny County, prevailing wage rates were more than 21 percent higher than average occupational rates set by the Labor Department, Sen. Brubaker said.

A 2001 study by the Journal of Education and Finance also found that taxpayers paid an additional 17 percent in labor costs and 22 percent in 25 school district construction projects that were surveyed.

Mr. George questioned the motives of those against prevailing wages.

"They're not talking about saving taxpayer dollars,'' he contended. "They want a free-market industry without any regulation whatsoever. The same people that are against prevailing wages are those against regulation on Wall Street. They want cheap labor."

The law has been debated and challenged in court numerous times since it was passed in 1961 as a descendant of the federal Davis-Bacon Act.

Mr. Brubaker conceded that the bill could be a "long shot" in the Democratic-controlled state House and with Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell, but said he still thinks it's important to re-introduce a "healthy debate" on the subject. The Senate is controlled by Republicans and the bill might have a chance there.