Duncan

Labor Code section 1720 embodies the long-standing public policy of California to require employers engaged on public works projects to pay the prevailing wage to their workers if the project is “paid for in whole or in part out of public funds.” The novel question presented here is whether tax credits provided by the state to facilitate construction of low-income housing comes within this definition. The trial court concluded that it does. Upon de novo review of the issue, we conclude otherwise—that however worthy the policy goals of encouraging the construction of low-cost housing and ensuring compliance with the prevailing wage requirements, the statutory language in its present form cannot be construed to command that result. Tax credits are, at best, intangible inducements offered by government, but they are not actual or de facto expenditures by government. As such, they do not qualify as either the “payment of . . . the equivalent of money by the state” (subd. (b)(1)), or as a “[transfer by the state ... of an asset of value for less than fair market price” (subd. (b)(3)), the portions of the definition of “paid for in whole or in part out of public funds”…