When the top executives of America's Big Three auto companies flew their private jets to Washington this week hoping for a $25 billion bailout, members of Congress understandably balked at the prospect of using tax dollars to prop up a change-resistant industry that has been losing ground to more efficient rivals.

Fort Wayne Community Schools board members will have an opportunity to do likewise Monday night - and their decision on the use of taxpayer money will indicate whether they learned anything from last year's failed $500 million building-improvement debacle.

For the first time in memory, FWCS' “common wage” committee did not perfunctorily choose union-level wages over a lower non-union scale when it met earlier this month to establish labor rates for planned 2009 capital projects expected to cost about $5 million. With the committee deadlocked 2-2 because Gov. Mitch Daniels' representative was absent, the full school board will have to break the tie - creating one of the few times elected officials have had to vote on such a politically charged issue.

With a potential savings of up to 30 percent at stake, it's too bad the vote didn't come before this month's too-quiet school board election.

“This hasn't happened in the 12 years I've been on the board,” said Jon Olinger, an outspoken critic of FWCS' previous approval of union wages for capital projects - including the $500 million in building improvements ultimately defeated by petition-signing taxpayers - who was defeated by Becky Hill in his bid for re-election. “You can't say, ‘We want to save taxpayers money' when you spend more than you have to. School officials have said they had to use union wages because it's the law. But are Allen County government and the Southwest Allen County Schools breaking the law?”

Apparently not, which is why FWCS should follow suit and do what people who actually have to spend their own money do during tough times like these: look for the best product at the lowest price.

Admittedly, $5 million for repairs to roofs, boilers and other improvements isn't a lot of money - at least not where government is concerned. But with FWCS officials making no secret of their desire for more substantial building upgrades in the future, the board's vote could represent some sort of precedent, and reassure a skeptical public its priorities are in the right place.

Significantly, the schools' shift in philosophy can be attributed at least in part to Board President Mark GiaQuinta, who reportedly supported Superior Leasing Co. owner Ben Johnston's appointment to the wage committee as the “taxpayers' representative.” Johnston's predecessors had reliably favored the higher wages, “but since I was asked to represent taxpayers, I thought: ‘If I can save money, why not?'” Johnston said.

Under state law, any nonfederal public-works contract of $150,000 or more must pay a “common construction wage” established by a five-member committee convened by the agency awarding the contract. County Human Resources Director Brian Dumford joined Johnston in voting for the lower wage scale favored by so-called “merit shops” represented by the Associated Builders and Contractors. Voting for the higher scale were Mike Stetler, FWCS coordinator of capital projects, and Dave Nicholson, an organizer for the Indiana Pipe Trades Association. Daniels representative Ken Boucher had a scheduling conflict, according to spokesman Sean Keefer - an absence Olinger ridiculed as “chicken (bleep).”

What does the law require? That apparently depends on how you determine which wage is most common for a particular job.

As FWCS attorney Bill Sweet noted, one definition favors the union position. If 100 people have the same pay through a collective bargaining agreement and 200 others earn a variety of amounts, is the salary earned by the most people the most “common?”

But J.R. Gaylor, the state Associated Builders and Contractors president and CEO, has a persuasive rebuttal: Of Fort Wayne's 9,520 construction employees, 70 percent are employed by non-union contractors. So isn't that most common?

“If both options are legal, why not adopt the most efficient way of doing it?” Gaylor said. “This is a microcosm of what's happening at the national level. The United Auto Workers have out-priced their product.”

In 2006, about 1,500 wage scales were adopted statewide - with the union-favored scale chosen 86 percent of the time. But that may be changing, Gaylor said: Of the 57 wage hearings conducted in Allen County between Jan. 1 and June 30 of this year, the Associated Builders and Contractors' wages were selected nearly 53 percent of the time. Those included $700,000 in roofing improvements for the Southwest Allen County Schools and $1.3 million in road and sewer improvements for Allen County government. Both County Commissioner Bill Brown and SWACS Business Manager Jim Coplen agreed quality has not suffered.

The common wage provides a minimum salary for certain jobs, but workers can earn more if the market demands it. Gaylor said the Associated Builders and Contractors' proposals in seven major areas represent a difference of about $12.91 per hour.

Look, I want workers to earn as much as possible. But wanting it can't make it so. In the free market, supply and demand determines wages, and government can only overcome that by forcing taxpayers to pay more - many of whom are hurting at least as much as construction workers.

“I'm not sure why (the FWCS committee) didn't approve the higher scale. It's a setback,” said Nicholson. “There may have been something political to it.”

But when politics reflects both the public will and common sense, that can be a good thing. At the union scale, Gaylor said, workers in those seven trades earn nearly $79,000 per year compared to “just” $52,000 for merit-shop employees.

The average FWCS teacher earns less than $48,000, lest anybody forget what schools are supposed to be all about.