The death of legislation to create a statewide vote on Colorado’s minimum wage could prove more a political talking point than the final word on whether paychecks get fatter for the state’s lowest-paid workers.
Rep. Dominick Moreno. D-Commerce City, the sponsor of two minimum-wage bills this session, said he still expects advocates for raising the $8.23 an hour minimum wage to get the question on the ballot via petition signatures. They would need the verified signatures of 98,492 registered Colorado voters.
“If the legislature can’t do it, then maybe they can,” Moreno said after his statewide proposal failed. “I think there’s a good chance we’ll see something on the ballot, because $8.23 is not enough.”
Under his bill, the wage would have risen in steps to $12.50 an hour by 2020.
Tuesday the bill won a majority, 33-31, but as a potential constitutional amendment, it did not get the two-thirds margin it needed to advance. A separate Moreno bill to allow elected officials in towns and counties to set the local wage based on the cost of living there passed the House on a party-line vote Tuesday morning.
That bill advances to the Republican-controlled Senate, where GOP leaders have signaled they’re out to kill it.
Denver-based independent political consultant Eric Sondermann said he doubts whether a minimum-wage measure could increase turnout for either party, but he said Democrats can use the issue to question where Republicans stand on helping the less economically fortunate.
“I can see it being attractive to some Democrats to put it on the 2016 ballot and force candidates to talk about their positions and force Republicans to come out against it,” he said.
Statehouse Republicans argued this week that raising the minimum wage could hurt small businesses with narrow profit margins, reduce jobs and hours for low-wage earners and cause inflation.
“I know there are folks out there struggling to pay their bills and struggling to get by living paycheck to paycheck, but we heard a lot of that is because costs are going up,” House Republican leader Brian DelGrosso, R-Loveland, said Tuesday referring to debate on the bill Monday.
“A lot of businesses out there, 50 percent of their costs is labor and payroll taxes. What do you think is going to happen? Businesses cannot absorb a 50-percent increase in 50 percent of their costs.”
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174, jbunch@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joeybunch
