Tucson voters to decide on higher minimum wage proposal

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PHOENIX (AP) – Tucson voters are being asked to approve a new minimum wage above the state’s base salary, which may aid Flagstaff in adopting the $ 15 an hour rate long sought by progressive Democrats.

Tuesday’s city election proposal would raise the hourly minimum wage for workers within city limits to $ 13 on April 1, $ 13.50 on January 1, 2023, $ 14.25 a year later, and to $ 15 on January 1, 2025 raise. Voters are interviewed separately to raise the mayor’s and city council’s pay and elect three council members.

The state minimum wage is $ 12.15 an hour, with inflation rising annually. The tariff is slated to rise to $ 12.80 an hour in January, so the proposed Tucson wage rate of $ 13 an hour isn’t much higher for the next year.

Flagstaff voters approved a higher minimum wage in the city in 2016. Wages there reached $ 15 an hour this year and have increased annually thereafter.

The move is on the city’s ballot because a group called Tucson Fight for 15 collected more than 14,826 valid signatures to qualify the initiative. Backers argue that frontline workers who have long been left behind earn a living wage.

“The pandemic has widened the huge gap between what minimum wage workers earn and the actual cost of living,” the Center for Economic Integrity’s managing director and chairman of the board wrote in an argument in an electoral brochure.

Others who argued in favor of Proposition 206 included Pima County regulators Matt Heinz and Adelita Grijalva, numerous local Democratic state lawmakers, union leaders, and leaders of nonprofit groups such as the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona.

The business world is united in opposition. The Tucson Metro Chamber, Arizona Restaurant Association, and other groups argue that the raise will hurt small businesses, raise all wages, and put businesses within city limits at a competitive disadvantage.

Michael Guymon, interim president and CEO of the chamber, said Proposition 206 was “unnecessary, divisive and will create a bureaucratic nightmare for our small businesses.”

The new wage would be only slightly above the state minimum, and annual spurts of inflation and market forces will bring wages to $ 15 without the measure, Guymon said.

“We would prefer a regional approach,” said Guymon on Thursday. “Of course, ultimately we want to see a nationwide approach that we already have.”

The Tucson Fight for 15 campaign manager scoffed at these statements.

“Most of these arguments are the standard every time we try to do good for people on low incomes,” CJ Boyd said of it, and it just isn’t true. “

He referred to studies that show that raising the minimum wage does not lead to yoy losses.

Dan Bogert, chief operating officer of the state restaurant association, said there were much bigger problems than slightly higher wages. He referred to the creation of a city enforcement department funded by business fees and new accounting rules.

“It is the bureaucracy that is being created,” said Bogert. “And honestly, I’m not sure right now if you can find a job in Tucson that pays less than $ 15. I think it’s probably closer to $ 16 or $ 17 just to get people in the door. ”

The minimum wage hike has held up well among Arizona voters despite opposition from business and Republican leaders. Voters voted for a nationwide wage increase by a wide margin in 2006 and again in 2016, and Flagstaff’s wage increase won that year too.

Proponents have outraged opponents of the initiative and outdid them. The Tucson Fight for 15 campaign said it had raised nearly $ 250,000 by October 15, most of it from unions and nonprofits. Committee No. 206 raised only $ 22,000.

The state legislature controlled by the GOP has tried to punish cities for raising their minimum wages. But a judge in an October 11 ruling prevented the state from collecting $ 1.1 million from Flagstaff to offset the higher state costs of providing services to groups such as the developmentally disabled.

The decision of Maricopa County Superior Court Judge James Smith circumvented Flagstaff’s motion to find the judgments unconstitutional. But it eliminated an argument that Tucson could potentially face higher costs if it passes its own higher wage bill, at least in the short term.

Regarding the raise, a citizen commission recommended raising city council members from $ 24,000 a year to $ 36,000 and the mayor’s salary from $ 42,000 to $ 54,000 a year, with subsequent annual inflation adjustments. If voters unsubscribe, the increases would take effect after the 2023 local council elections.

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