Unanimous
vote in committee and he was surprised to hear opposition on the Council floor.
“Are we really telling people we can’t afford paying them 50 cents more an
hour?” asked Carlozzi, noting that the state minimum goes to $9.60 the year
after next and won’t reach $10.10 until 2017. City officials
estimate the impact of $10.10 for eligible employees would be somewhere north
of $80,000. But Carlozzi, who delivered a budget-cutting soliloquy on ways to
avoid tax hikes at the start of the meeting, insisted that even the most
austere municipal budget should find room for half a buck an hour more for
entry-level wages in city jobs. Approximately 160 employees, part and
full-time, would be covered by the new minimum.
“Democrat”
Daniel Salerno, a member of the Council’s Republican caucus, and Minority
Leader Jamie Giantonio, led the opposition to the measure on jurisdictional and
fiscal grounds. Salerno, being a good soldier for the Stewart
Administration, argued minimum and living wages are not the concern of elected
officials in local government. Giantonio, noting the precarious financial
condition of the budget, indicated that the city could use the money for other
things instead of upping the minimum for a limited number of city employees a
year ahead of the state mandated wage policy.
The
GOP Aldermen, wanting to have it both ways, quickly endorsed “living wages”
that exceed $10.10 in theory but fell back on familiar arguments used whenever
proposals to have minimums catch up with the cost of living: it’ll kill jobs
and drive costs up for consumers (taxpayers).
Alderman Salerno makes a good point: if
Congress, specifically the GOP House was doing its job to adjust the $7.25
federal wage, neither city nor state would need to debate the issue. The
$10.10 an hour would already be in the calculations for the current budget let
alone next year’s or the year after that. The Common Council, however,
did the right thing in passing more than a feel good resolution backing state
and federal action after the Obama visit. The need for constrained
spending and austerity in municipal budgets is undeniable. But paying an
additional 50 cents per hour for the least paid among city workers is a step
toward fairness and away from the excuses and myths that always come from
opponents. Excuses and myths are holding the minimum to $7.25 nationally
but not in Connecticut nor New Britain.
Chairman McNamara should realize the
political reality that a resolution must await a newly elected council
membership before any advance action can be taken in advancing the raising of
the minimum wage before the US Government does. Only then can it happen.
One can only assume that the DTC Chairman is
apparently attempting to make the current Democratic council membership appear
that they have approved $10.10 minimum wage a year in advance but failed in their
process.
The finance director has stated the cost, if plausible,
would have cost and approximate $85,000.
The Mayor according to the media is ignoring
the common council’s resolution.
Thankfully, our high school and the community
college students are still able to work for the Parks and Recreation this
summer at the current minimum rates.
It is amazing that Mr. McNamara, a financial business
director for Hartford’s Community college for pushing his stance for the wage
increase to happen immediately limiting the student’s ability fine summer work
at our various towns and cities in Conn.
fs
This will simply drive more businesses out of the city, but why would Democrats care since their party's ultimate goal is to have the entire populace end up on welfare?
ReplyDeleteWhile these commies are at it, why don't they pass a city income tax so that they can really get into redistributing wealth from the minority of city residents who actually work and pay taxes to the majority of residents who probably never worked a day in their lives because those lazy slugs deserve your money more than you do. You evil rich people have some nerve wanting to keep the money you earned even if you were dumb enough to work hard for it. A welfare mother with 12 kids deserves it more than you do, so pay up you selfish rich people because there are people on welfare who deserve more free beer and more free cell phones.
ReplyDeleteAt least the people are waking up to the damage these Democrats are doing, because they are voting so many Democrat candidates out of office. I hope the Democrats stay their course with trying to turn this city communist so that they can lose even more council seats in the next election.
ReplyDelete