LANSING - It's confirmed: the petition drive to repeal the Michigan Prevailing Wage Act of 1965 is over for 2016.

The Detroit Free Press reported May 27 that the Protecting Michigan Taxpayers, the front group for the anti-union Associated Builders and Contractors - won't turn in repeal petitions by the June 1 deadline.

Chris Fisher, spokesman for Protecting Michigan Taxpayers and former president of Associated Builders and Contractors of Michigan, told the Free Press it was a “strategic decision” not to go forward with the prevailing wage repeal petition effort.

The Free Press said Fisher wouldn't say whether the group had gotten enough signatures - 252,523- from registered voters. But as we have been reporting, the petition drive began in March, and stalled in April, and it became evident that the petition drive had been called off, for an unknown reason.

It may well be that it was cancelled due to lack of funds. A first petition drive to repeal prevailing wage, ended disastrously for the ABC/Protect Michigan Taxpayers last year when the company that collected the signatures turned in tens of thousands of duplicate signatures, invalidating the entire effort while costing about $1.8 million. The Devos family was a major funding sponsor of the failed petition drive, and earlier this year the ABC sued the company which collected signatures in an effort to get its money back.

If the second petition drive had gathered sufficient signatures, the names would have been submitted to the state Board of Canvassers for approval. If approved, under the state Constitution the petition language to repeal prevailing wage would have been presented to the state Legislature for a vote. The heavily conservative majorities in both the state House and Senate were widely expected to approve the prevailing wage repeal, although the vote may have been close in the House.

But if the Legislature failed to approve the language, it would have gone before a statewide vote in November. Under this state Constitutional scenario, Gov. Rick Snyder would not have a say in the matter, although he has indicated he supports the state's prevailing wage law.

Now what? “We’re not going anywhere,” Fisher told the Free Press. “Stay tuned; everything remains on the table at this time.”

Patrick Devlin, secretary-treasurer of the Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council, said "it had become apparent for some time that the petition drive was ending, and now that it's official, we've very pleased that the latest threat to cut construction workers' pay has stalled, for now. But we know the ABC and their backers are going to be back. Maybe they will try to ram it through the lame duck session at the end of the year, maybe they wait until 2017, we just don't know. But we have to continue to work to educate our members on the importance of voting for representatives who will look out for them, and not cut wages."