A Facebook friend shared the Youtube above from The UpTake of the minimum wage conference committee coming to order.
About midway, through the hearing, the House lead asks a question about Senator Ann Rest's amendment and the Senate lead on the conference committee admits she wasn't asked about the constitutional amendment.
That's flabbergasting news about a bill that will be heard in committee on Friday. Here's the exchange:
Winkler: I guess another question for the Senator is, I understand that today the Majority Leader co-authored a bill for a constitutional amendment that included indexing. Is that representative position of the caucus that indexing is acceptable if the voters approve it? Or is that kind of a statement from two senators?
Tomassoni: [muffled]
Winkler: That's question from any senator
Tomassoni: Is that a rhetorical question?
Winkler: No, it's just--I'd like to better understand the position of the Senate.
Eaton: Mr. Chair--
Winkler: Senator Eaton.
Eaton: It was not discussed with me, so I have no idea if other people support it. I only know that Senator Rest and Senator Bakk are listed on the bill as the co-authors.
Facts about the index and the small business rate
The same friend shared the Facebook status of AFL-CIO political director Kris Fredson. With his permission, we quote his clarification about what indexing would mean [paragraphing supplied for ease of reading]:
For all of you who care about raising the wage, but aren't following this closely, here's the deal: The current proposal from the MN State House requires small businesses to pay workers $7.75 per hour beginning in 2016, indexed to inflation and capped at 3% per year, whichever is lower. That's $.50 above the federal minimum wage two years from now, which most small businesses pay today, and an additional $.15-20 cents per year increase after that-to keep up with the cost of living.
We don't freeze the price of groceries, why should we freeze the minimum wage? Any MN State Senator that tells you they don't support raising and indexing the minimum wage because they are concerned about impacts on small business either isn't paying attention, or is standing up for big business under the guise of standing up for small business. [emphasis added]
What the Raise the Wage Coalition is fighting for is for a FULL TIME worker at a big business to make $19,760 per year, and a FULL TIME worker at a small business to make $16,120 per year, in the year 2016.
Can you imagine supporting a family, not to mention local businesses, on that? And then we are fighting to ensure those STILL POVERTY WAGES keep up with the cost of living. That's just common sense and the right thing to do. It's time to catch and keep up...It's time for the Senate DFL to get this done.
Learn more about indexing in three thoughtful posts at MN2020. Check out Close the Deal: Senate Should Accept House Minimum Wage Offer. Indexing Won’t Cause Excessive Minimum Wage Increases and Arguments Against Indexing Minimum Wage Fall Flat are also helpful.
A partial transcript up to Winkler's question:
Ryan Winkler convenes the committee, and in the brief space in which it meets, there are some telling exchanges. The House lead opens:
As we left the room last time, we had an offer that we made to the Senate. The Senate was planning to talk it over and was hoping to get back to us and so this is our opportunity to for the Senate to let us know what you're thinking.
Chris Eaton: Mr. Chair, Senator Tomassoni would like to explain our caucus.
David Tomassoni: I'm not sure that we have enough time, or that we want to deal with that. [crosstalk]
Eaton: ---In the meeting last night.
Tomassoni: Oh you don't want me to tell him about everyone in it? [Laughter]
Winkler: Senator Tomassoni.
Tomassoni: Because I'm still trying to understand our caucus, too. Mr. Chairman and members, Senator Eaton showed the caucus your offer and the inflationary factor is still a problem and so I don't know what to tell you other than that the offer is not going to be acceptable to us.
Winkler: Senator Tomassoni, it's uncharacteristically brief for your body, but we appreciate the comments. So is there any thought from the Senate of responsing aside from "No, thank you"?
Tomassoni: If the House is willing to tell us that they're willing to drop the inflationary factor, we could have an offer.
Winkler: I guess another question for the Senator is, I understand that today the Majority Leader co-authored a bill for a constitutional amendment that included indexing. Is that representative position of the caucus that indexing is acceptable if the voters approve it? Or is that kind of a statement from two senators?
Tomassoni: [muffled]
Winkler: That's question from any senator
Tomassoni: Is that a rhetorical question?
Winkler: No, it's just--I'd like to better understand the position of the Senate.
Eaton: Mr. Chair--
Winkler: Senator Eaton.
Eaton: It was not discussed with me, so I have no idea if other people support it. I only know that Senator Rest and Senator Bakk are listed on the bill as the co-authors.
Eaton is the lead negotiator for the Senate on the conference committee.
After a period of silence, Representative Jason Metsa jumps in with his best What Would Rukavina Do? moment and mentions a little website keeping a count of where the Senators are on the indexing. In the best Rukavina tradition, Tommy's successor claims that the Whip Count is at the magic number of 34.
Actually, it's 32, but there are some blank spaces--and Bluestem hears that not all the silent holdouts are in the no column when it comes to indexing. Check out the MN Senate minimum wage constituent Whip Count.
Photo: A scene from the gallery at the conference committee. Photo by Dale Moerke., who noted on Facebook: "My view from today's minimum wage conference committee. I did not have much of an opportunity to take pictures because it only took the Senate 3 1/2 minutes to blow off 350,000 + Minnesotans."
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