GOSHEN – Union carpenters rallied on Thursday outside the Orange County Government Center aiming to raise awareness of a problem that wallops workers and taxpayers in the wallet: construction fraud.
The rally was part of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters national Tax Fraud Day of Action awareness campaign, said Scott Smith, business manager for the North Atlantic State Regional Council of Carpenters and Carpenters Local 279, based in Hopewell Junction.
“It’s a bad problem in Orange County and in the Hudson Valley,” said Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler, who spoke at the event.
According to materials put together by Matthew Capece, representative for the general president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, nationally in 2020, worker exploitation and unfair competition in the construction industry affects between 1.3 million and 2.16 million workers, and represents about $8.4 billion in lost state and federal tax revenue. It also accou