January 12, 2007

Democrats’ efforts to boost minimum wage; stuck in idle.

 

It’s the end of the first week of the first session of the 82^nd General Assembly with Democrats holding all the strings; although their first issue off the block, an increase in the minimum wage set to see floor debate yesterday afternoon, was curiously held back to allow Democrats to negotiate details among themselves.  Not quite the grand week of symbolic bi-partisan legislating that Majority Leader Gronstal was planning.

 

A floor debate on raising the minimum wage was stalled due to serious disagreements among Democrats over minimum wage details. 

 

Senate Democrats, comfortable with their majority, spiced up the minimum wage bill with language that automatically adjusts the cost of living based on increases in the Consumer Price Index. They also plan to remove the option employers have of paying lower wages to teenage workers during the first 90 days of employment.  House Democrats are rationally concerned with the likely job losses that rural Iowa will suffer with these policies. 

 

Senator Dearden, quoted in the Quad City Times, offers this assessment of the internal Democratic struggle over minimum wage:

 

“There are differences of opinion all over the place. We’re just trying to come together,” said Sen. Dick Dearden, D-Des Moines, chairman of the Labor and Business Relations Committee. “It’s going to take a little longer than we thought.”

 

Yes, Senate Democrats are finding out very quickly that leading is a difficult task, made particularly challenging when you have to negotiate divergent interests within a caucus to assemble reasonable public policy.

 

Not only are there differing opinions on the minimum wage issue, but Senate Democrats can’t seem to find common ground on issues of taxation.  Iowa City Senator and Ways and Means Chair Joe Bolkcom had this to say in a different Quad City Times article about business taxation:

 

“We’re in a competitive place,” he said.  “I don’t believe Iowa businesses are overtaxed.”

 

Majority Leader Gronstal has his work cut out for him: negotiate a reasonable minimum wage bill that will not put rural Iowans out of work; find a good solution to business property taxation that doesn’t shift those taxes to families and homeowners; and learn a few tricks to wrangle Senate Democrats when he needs to pass legislation.