Saturday, March 25, 2006

Minimum wage campaign is over
Somewhere Ken Sikkema is smiling.

Sponsors pulled the plug Friday on a petition drive to raise Michigan's minimum wage. Gov. Jennifer Granholm is expected to sign into law Tuesday an even higher minimum wage than the campaign had sought.

A campaign to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.85 an hour is no longer needed because the Republican-controlled Legislature approved a $6.95-an-hour base wage, said John Freeman, director of the Michigan Needs a Raise petition drive.

The new minimum wage approved by lawmakers will rise again, to $7.15 an hour in 2007 and $7.40 an hour in 2008.

The petition drive, led by the state Democratic Party and Michigan AFL-CIO, had hoped to collect 318,000 valid signatures to place its minimum-wage plan on the ballot.

Unlike the Legislature's bill, the ballot proposal would have locked the minimum wage into the state constitution, along with an annual cost-of-living increase.

Republicans and political experts said the ballot-issue campaign was an attempt to boost Democratic turnout for the November election, when voters will choose a governor, U.S. senator, attorney general and secretary of state.

Polls have shown 80% of Michigan voters support raising the minimum wage.

For years, Republican lawmakers and their business allies suppressed Democratic efforts to raise the minimum wage, claiming it would cost jobs. But rather than anger voters by opposing a popular issue, the GOP relented and passed its plan earlier this month.

Let's suppose that the nightmare scenario happens- DeVos rigs the voting machines gets in, Repubs hold a majority in the Legislature. Dick fails to produce jobs, says "Michigan workers make too much money".

What do you think happens then?

I do not trust these guys.