HOw to use a Constructor to create and pass a property in Laravel

Using Laravel: I want to have specific properties available for use within all my methods without having to replicate the code in each and every method. So.. I'm thinking perhaps putting the code into the constructor is the correct thing to do. It might not be as it is not working as expected. PHPStorm is has greyed out the $contractor variable within the constructor telling me that it is not in use anywhere. Yet the $contractor variable within the Index method is not greyed out. Nevertheless, I do not get the $contractor variable for use in Index().

What am I doing wrong?

Here is the constructor:

 class AccountController extends Controller
{

protected $contractor;
protected $email;
protected $id;

public function __construct(Contractor $contractor,Auth $id){


            $this->id=Auth::id();
            $user = User::find($this->id);
            $contractor = Contractor::where('email', '=', $user->email)->get();

}


public function index($contractor) // THIS DOES NOT WORK
    {

    return View('contractor_portal/account_show',compact('contractor' ));
    }
}

via Chebli Mohamed