Hawley, Welch Propose $15 Minimum Wage

On Tuesday, U.S. Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) introduced the Higher Wages for American Workers Act, which would increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour and allow the federal minimum wage to increase with inflation in subsequent years. When adjusted for inflation, the current federal minimum wage is lower than at any point since the 1940s. Meanwhile, the cost of housing, healthcare, and education has skyrocketed, leaving millions of full-time workers struggling to make ends meet.

“For decades, working Americans have seen their wages flatline. One major culprit of this is the failure of the federal minimum wage to keep up with the economic reality facing hardworking Americans every day. This bipartisan legislation would ensure that workers across America benefit from higher wages,” Senator Hawley said.  

“We’re in the midst of a severe affordability crisis, with families in red and blue states alike struggling to afford necessities like housing and groceries. A stagnant federal minimum wage only adds fuel to the fire. Every hardworking American deserves a living wage that helps put a roof over their head and food on the table–$7.25 an hour doesn’t even come close,” said Senator Welch. “Times have changed, and working families deserve a wage that reflects today’s financial reality. I’m proud to lead this bipartisan effort to raise the minimum wage nationwide to help more folks make ends meet,” Senator Welch added.

If signed into law this year, the Higher Wages for American Workers Act would:

—Increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour starting in January 2026.

—Allow the federal minimum wage to increase with inflation in subsequent years.

 

Five Petitions, Including Three Marijuana Issues, to Make November Ballot for Missouri

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has issued a Certificate of Sufficiency for five of six initiative petitions, signifying that each has met the minimum number of signatures required to appear on the general election ballot on Nov. 6. Any legal challenge to Thursday’s certification must be filed by August 12th. The following issues will make the ballot if no successful legal challenges by opponents are filed:

Petition Number 2018-041 – Medical Marijuana (Constitutional Amendment).
Petition Number 2018-048 – General Assembly (Constitutional Amendment).
Petition Number 2018-051 – Medical Marijuana (Constitutional Amendment).
Petition Number 2018-204 – Minimum Wage (Statutory).
Petition Number 2018-271 – Medical Marijuana (Statutory).

The Missouri Secretary of State’s website has links to the Petition Submission, the Official Ballot Title, and Secretary Ashcroft’s Certificate of Sufficiency.

The Secretary of State’s Office issued a Certificate of Insufficiency for Petition 2018-223, a constitutional amendment related to marijuana, on May 31, 2018. Final certification of the Nov. 6 general election ballot must be issued no later than Aug. 28, 2018.

Initiative Petitions Receiving Certificate of Sufficiency:
Petition 2018-041
Constitutional Amendment to Article XIV, Relating to Legalizing Marijuana for Medical Purposes
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:
·  Allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes, and create regulations and licensing procedures for marijuana and marijuana facilities;
· Impose a 15 percent tax on the retail sale of marijuana, and a tax on the wholesale sale of marijuana flowers and leaves per dry-weight ounce to licensed facilities; and
·  Use funds from these taxes to establish and fund a state research institute to conduct research with the purpose of developing cures and treatments for cancer and other incurable diseases or medical conditions?
 This proposal is estimated to generate annual taxes and fees of $66 million. State governmental entities estimate initial implementation costs of $186,000 and increased annual operating costs of $500,000.

Petition 2018-048
Constitutional Amendment to Article III, Relating to the General Assembly
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:
· Change process and criteria for redrawing state legislative districts during reapportionment;
· Change limits on campaign contributions that candidates for state legislature can accept from individuals or entities;
· Establish a limit on gifts that state legislators, and their employees, can accept from paid lobbyists;
· Prohibit state legislators, and their employees, from serving as paid lobbyists for a period of time;
· Prohibit political fundraising by candidates for or members of the state legislature on State property; and
· Require legislative records and proceedings to be open to the public?
State governmental entities estimate annual operating costs may increase by $189,000. Local governmental entities expect no fiscal impact.

Petition 2018-051
Constitutional Amendment to Article XVI, Relating to Legalizing Marijuana for Medical Purposes
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:
· Allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes, and create regulations and licensing/certification procedures for marijuana and marijuana facilities;
· Impose a 4 percent tax on the retail sale of marijuana; and
· Use funds from these taxes for health and care services for military veterans by the Missouri Veterans Commission and to administer the program to license/certify and regulate marijuana and marijuana facilities?
This proposal is estimated to generate annual taxes and fees of $18 million for state operating costs and veterans programs, and $6 million for local governments. Annual state operating costs are estimated to be $7 million.

Petition 2018-204
Statutory Amendment to Chapter 290, Relating to Minimum Wage
Do you want to amend Missouri law to:
· Increase the state minimum wage to $8.60 per hour with 85 cents per hour increase each year until 2023, when the state minimum wage would be $12.00 per hour;
· Exempt government employers from the above increase; and
· Increase the penalty for paying employees less than the minimum wage?
State and local governments estimate no direct costs or savings from the proposal, but operating costs could increase by an unknown annual amount that could be significant. State and local government tax revenue could change by an unknown annual amount ranging from a $2.9 million decrease to a $214 million increase depending on business decisions.

Petition 2018-271
Statutory Amendment to Chapters 192, 195, 263 & 311, Relating to the Legalization and Taxation of Medical Marijuana
Do you want to amend Missouri law to:
· Remove state prohibitions on personal use and possession of medical cannabis (marijuana) with a written certification by a physician who treats a patient diagnosed with a qualifying medical condition;
· Remove state prohibitions on growth, possession, production, and sale of medical marijuana by licensed and regulated facilities, and a facility's licensed owners and employees;
· Impose a 2% tax on the retail sale of medical marijuana; and
· Use funds from this tax for veterans' services, drug treatment, early childhood education, and for public safety in cities with a medical marijuana facility?
State government entities estimate initial and one-time costs of $2.6 million, annual costs of $10 million, and annual revenues of at least $10 million. Local government entities estimate no annual costs and are expected to have at least $152,000 in annual revenues.

Initiative Petition Process Overview
The initiative petition process gives Missouri citizens the opportunity to directly participate in our democracy. The secretary of state’s office is charged with overseeing this process and certifying proposed ballot measures. A full description of the initiative petition process is available in “Make Your Voice Heard", a booklet published by the Secretary of State.

Following is a brief overview of the process:
·  The petitioner submits proposed language for an initiative petition to the secretary of state’s office. The attorney general examines the petition and provides approval. The auditor provides a fiscal note and fiscal note summary. The secretary of state’s office certifies the official ballot title for the proposal, which consists of a summary statement and fiscal note summary, and approves the petition for circulation.

· The petitioner circulates the petition and collects signatures. The signatures are submitted to the secretary of state’s office. The deadline for signature submission was 5 p.m. on May 6, 2018.

· The secretary of state’s office distributes copies of the signature pages to each of Missouri’s 116 local election authorities to verify that the individuals were eligible to sign the petition in their respective jurisdictions. Local election authorities submit their final results to the secretary of state.

· The secretary of state’s office determines whether the petition contains a sufficient number of valid signatures. If so, the secretary of state’s office issues a certificate of sufficiency, stating that the petition shall be placed on the ballot for the general election. If not, the secretary issues a certificate of insufficiency.

· Any legal challenge to a certificate must be filed within 10 days of issuance of the certificate.

· The secretary of state will issue a final certification of the November general election ballot no later than Aug. 28, 2018.

All ballot measures must receive a simple majority to pass. None of the measures would legalize recreational marijuana.

Editorial -- Respect the Peoples' Wishes on Minimum Wage Law

The Missouri Chamber of Commerce is planning to fight the proposed state minimum wage increase that will raise the rate from $7.25 per hour to $7.35 per hour starting in 2013. This is accompanied by the usual partisan posturing in which they claim that it will drive Missouri employers out of the state to states which do not have such an increase.

But the fact of the matter is that this is simply not true. Washington, with a similar law as Missouri's, has the highest minimum wage in the country, at $9.19 per hour yet their unemployment rate is no higher than the rest of the country. Another common argument against the minimum wage is that there would be inflation, yet we were able to buy groceries and other goods cheaper there than we can here.

What the Chamber of Commerce ignores is that when wages go up, people have more disposable income and thus spend more money on the economy -- to the very people whom the Chamber of Commerce says this will hurt.

The state Minimum Wage law was passed as a 2006 ballot initiative by the people of Missouri. It passed overwhelmingly, including in Worth County. The Chamber of Commerce says that they are going to work with the legislature to get it overturned. The problem with that is that they are ignoring the wishes of the people of Missouri, who passed this law overwhelmingly.

The Missouri legislature now has a veto-proof Republican majority. But here is the catch -- they have to use that power responsibly, or the people of Missouri will simply vote them out in two years time. If they wish to be able to maintain that sort of a majority, they must respect the wishes of voters even if it goes against certain special interests. The people of Missouri have spoken. The best thing that all parties can do is to respect the wishes of the voters and focus on other ways to open Missouri for business.

Mo. House overturns voter-approved minimum wage law

By a near party-line vote, Missouri's House voted Tuesday [March 1] to put a cap on the minimum wage law that Missouri voters approved five years ago. Most of the House Republicans voted in support of the change, not one Democrat voted to approve the measure. In 2006, 76 percent of Missouri voters approved a measure to raise minimum wage and tie it to the inflation rate. The House-passed bill would prohibit Missouri's minimum wage from exceeding the federal level. Both are currently set at $7.25, but because Missouri uses the consumer price index to set its minimum wage, the state's level could increase past the federal level if the cost of living increases. Rep. Sylvester Taylor, D-St. Louis County, said employees will be at a disadvantage if the measure passes. "If you don't take care of your workers, what message are you sending to your workforce?" Taylor said. Republicans, including the bill's sponsor, Rep. Jerry Nolte, R-Gladstone, said lowering minimum wage would create jobs. By eliminating the inflationary increases, businesses wouldn't need to pay higher labor costs and could maintain jobs for low-skilled workers, he said. "Those of you who are voting on this bill, go home this weekend, go to your small businesses, look them in the eye and ask yourself, 'Can I tell them how I voted on this bill? Can I tell them that I am standing with them to create jobs?'" Nolte said during House debate. Allowing Missouri's minimum wage to increase above the federal rate and that of surrounding states would make doing business in Missouri less attractive for employers, said Republican Floor Leader Tim Jones, R-St. Louis County. "None of the bordering states which we compete economically with and competitively with have this (inflation rate) provision," he said. "It is an anomaly." All 57 House Democrats joined with four Republicans to vote against the bill. They said lowering the minimum wage would cost Missouri thousands of jobs and hurt families that live below the poverty level. Rep. Mike Colona, D-St Louis, said Republicans don't care about the voice of the people. "House Republicans today told the people of Missouri that their opinion as expressed at the ballot box doesn't matter," Colona said. The minimum wage issue is one of three proposals pushed by Republicans in the legislature to change proposals approved by Missouri voters. Legislation to repeal restrictions on dog breeders, which voters approved last fall, has advanced in the legislature. Lawmakers also have proposed a plan to force Missourians to foot the bill for AmerenUE to pursue a permit to build a second nuclear reactor in the state. "Some things are passed by the voters and I think we should respect that," said House Speaker Steve Tilley, R-Perryville. "But if there's unintended consequences that we feel like the residents in our district didn't understand or didn't realize were going to occur, we have an obligation as their representative to fix it."

Senate committee considers tying state minimum wage to federal standard

A proposed change to current minimum wage legislation could affect thousands of Missouri workers. The Missouri Senate bill calls for voters in the 2012 election to decide whether to bind the state minimum wage to the federally mandated wage. The Senate Small Business, Insurance and Industry Committee heard the bill Tuesday [Feb. 22]. Committee Chairman Sen. Scott Rupp, R-St. Charles County, said he sees the change as benefiting Missouri's business community. "If we start to exceed the national minimum wage, then all of a sudden we become even more uncompetitive compared to neighboring states," Rupp said. "(The bill) is something to look at, especially in an era of low employment." While the federal and state wage are both currently set at $7.25, critics worry inflation could eat up the amount that workers would receive in the future. The current law was enacted in 2006, after voters supported an increase in the state's minimum wage levels. Lara Granich, director of the Missouri Jobs with Justice Coalition, helped push for passage of the 2006 increase. She said the amount of support the proposal received around the state proves that lawmakers should keep their hands off the status quo. "76.4 percent of Missourians voted for the increase in minimum wage," Granich said. "Actually, even more powerfully, it passed in every single county by 16 points or more." However, Rupp said the current economic downturn makes it imperative to try to attract employers to the state. "We can kick it back to the people and say is this something that you wanted to do to try to spur economic growth in our small businesses, which hire most of the employees here in the state," Rupp said. Sponsor of the bill, Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, could not be reached for comment.