A $10 minimum wage in Michigan is the centerpiece of a number of populist proposals unveiled Wednesday by the Democratic Party, which hopes to get some of the initiatives on next year's ballot.| Good idea: let's raise the minimum wage at a time of deep recession, 13% plus unemployment in the state, planned tax hikes and businesses cutting hours and employees. What could possibly go wrong? |
| Flint will look like a paradise in Michigan if this stuff passes ... |
But Rich Studley, president of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, called the proposals "anti-jobs, anti-growth" and said they may be used by economic development directors in other Midwestern states to discourage businesses from locating or expanding in Michigan.
"I'm not sure Mark Brewer understands he's playing with fire," Studley said. "The political and economic uncertainty caused by this publicity stunt can do immediate damage to economic development in this state."
| Just about every private enterprise job in Michigan can move to Indiana ... |
Other ballot proposals unveiled by the Democratic Party would:
- Require all employers to provide health coverage or pay a fine.
- Increase unemployment benefits by $100 a week, extend benefits by six months and make all workers eligible for unemployment. The maximum unemployment benefit is now $387 a week.
- Cut utility rates by 20 percent.
- Impose a one-year moratorium on home foreclosures.
Increasing the state's minimum wage from $7.40 an hour to $10 an hour would give Michigan the highest standard in the nation. Washington state has the highest rate at $8.55 an hour. The initiative also would remove exceptions that allow employers to pay less than the minimum wage to some workers, such as restaurant wait staff.
Labor unions and Democrats were pushing a ballot plan to raise the minimum wage in 2006, but the Legislature approved an increase before it could go to voters. That measure gradually raised the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.40 an hour, which went into effect July 1, 2008.
Union officials see the minimum wage as a quality of life issue for hourly workers, but business groups say many employers, especially small businesses, can't afford another increase.
Tom Shields, a Lansing-based Republican political consultant, said Brewer is doing nothing more than trying to turn out the vote in Detroit and other Democratic strongholds in the 2010 election. "How do you get out the vote that came out for Obama in 2008?" Shields said. "That's what this is about."
Brewer said the proposals are not necessarily intended to drive up Democratic turnout during next year's elections, which will feature a race for governor, but said these ballot initiatives may in fact do that.
"Can any of (the initiatives) pass?" Shields said. "Who knows? People are getting desperate."
Robert Kolt, a Democrat-leaning public relations consultant based in Okemos, called the Brewer strategy "nuts." "He's trying to turn what should be addressed in legislation into ballot proposals, like they do in California," Kolt said. "Ballot proposals cost millions of dollars. Why waste that money on ballot proposals when it should be spent on (promoting) candidates?"
The Democratic Party was behind a controversial ballot proposal in 2008 that would have changed several parts of the state constitution, including the structure of state courts and how the boundaries of lawmakers' districts are drawn. State courts ruled the proposal was unconstitutional because it was too broad, and it never made the ballot.