Weekend Joe - Tariffs and the Labor Market
- frastecon
- Jul 26
- 3 min read
Attending Henderson County Board of Commissioners’ meetings can often be sleep-inducing. At other times, the normally somber proceedings are punctuated with tiny bomblets of “what did they just say?” moments. The sound system in the Historic Courthouse is not always up to the task, and the Commissioners sometimes use its inadequacy to render their comments inaudible to much of the audience.
Auditory challenges aside, the July 23rd meeting was notable for a challenge by the two newest Commissioners—Sheila Franklin and Jay Egolf—to County Manager John Mitchell’s announcement that the latest cost estimate for the JCAR (Judicial Complex Addition & Renovation) project now stands at $173.5 million.
The original authorization to proceed (then estimated at $158.3 million) was approved in May 2024. (Franklin and Egolf were not on the board at that time.) The new estimate reflects a 9.6% increase over just 15 months.
Despite this, the Henderson County District Attorney and the Clerk of Court again stressed the importance of moving forward. Board Chair Bill Lapsley, a civil engineer with decades of relevant experience, also defended the project and the revised estimate.
I don’t have a particular issue with the cost increase. From my initial review of the proposal and the materials presented by the court and sheriff, the request seemed grounded in logic and experience. What did strike me during the latest discussion, however, were comments made by John Albro, senior project director at the Haskell Company (partnered with Hendersonville’s Cooper Construction), who is managing the project.
Albro explained that global and political events are driving up costs.
“We’re trying to go to market and make purchases in a situation now where every time you turn around you have a different global item impacting things,” he said. “We’ve got tariffs, we’ve got labor shortages due to various things that are happening in the news.”
Albro is referring to the volatile tariffs imposed by Washington, which change frequently based on ongoing negotiations. His subtext was clear: tariff costs are passed on to the buyer, not absorbed by the seller. In this case, that buyer is Henderson County—and ultimately, its taxpayers.
These tariffs are, in essence, an undeclared federal sales tax. And like any sales tax, it hits working families the hardest, since we spend a greater share of our income on daily necessities. While Washington boasts about record revenue surpluses, they’re coming from us, not from corporations.
Albro also referenced the difficulty in securing skilled labor. In a tight labor market, wages increase—that’s simple economics: supply and demand.
But the deeper issue behind the labor shortage? Immigration raids and mass deportations.
Albro alluded to the impact of ICE’s ramped-up enforcement actions. These raids often target people based on skin color, language, accent, or gathering places—not legal status. Many swept up in ICE operations are here legally.
The net effect: workers avoid job sites, day labor centers, or leave the U.S. altogether. The majority of these individuals are law-abiding, family-centered, and vital to our economy. They pay an estimated $100 billion annually in federal, state, and local taxes.
And yet, we drive them away.
This isn’t just about the JCAR project. The same labor shortage threatens our harvest season, and with it, the tourism dollars that sustain our local economy.
We must not ignore the direct link between the Washington policies driving these shortages—tariffs and ICE’s tactics—and the votes of our own Congressman, Chuck Edwards.
Edwards votes as he’s told, and abuses his franking privilege to mislead NC-11 voters about the consequences of those votes. While the billionaires and corporate donors grow richer, the rest of us—Republicans, Democrats, and Unaffiliated voters alike—are left to deal with higher prices, fewer workers, and more stress.
We can’t afford to sit this one out. We begin charting a new course next November—by voting for leaders who represent us, not the wealthy and powerful few.