Posted on 06/03/2006 3:05:19 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's move to boost the minimum wage is part of a calculated campaign that won't improve the lives of poor families in California.
The governor has asked a defunct state commission to reconvene just long enough to raise the state's minimum wage by $1, to $7.75 per hour over one year. Schwarzenegger twice has vetoed identical increases that would have spread the wage hike over two years.
What's the hurry? The governor may be shrewdly blocking even-worse Democratic legislation imposing automatic raises to keep pace with inflation. But that's giving him a lot of credit, particularly after his recent spree of pandering to public employee unions.
For example, teachers would get most of the $5 billion Schwarzenegger's budget showers on schools. He capitulated to prison guards on pay and management reforms, and long gone is his plan to fix the state's pension system.
Bear in mind that unions spent $100 million defeating the governor's reform agenda in last year's special election. And union bosses care little for the economic prospects of low-income families.
Economists agree that minimum-wage laws create winners and losers. Higher labor costs will prompt some businesses to shed workers. True, the governor's 15 percent wage hike will help those lucky enough to keep their jobs. But some of that cash will go to suburban teenagers; a 2000 study found that just 11 percent of the additional earnings go to families with children living in poverty.
In any case, a missing job is much harder to see than a worker with a nice raise. Politicians count on this relative invisibility. Also ignored is the hardship on low-income households when rising labor costs force companies to raise prices.
Let's pause to review: Adding $1 to the state's minimum wage helps only a few poor families, raises bills for all, and destroys jobs for those who need them most.
We should note here that union bosses love government-mandated wages, because they make non-union firms less competitive. More to the point, union bosses support politicians who raise minimum wages.
Schwarzenegger, having been crushed once in an election, is doing whatever he can to avoid a rerun.
Why play all the games, just to end up with a minimum wage hike?
The VETO pen would do the job just fine.
Yeah, but maybe not if he actually wants to win the election for Governor this fall. Vetoing minimum wage increases isn't a particularly election-winning issue in most cases.
Not saying that I agree with him on this, of course, but I'm sure that's what the logic is.
Minimum wages are destructive. Instead of using his platform to educate the misguided leftists, he is cowtowing to them and morphing into a Democrat.
He won the recall election campaigning as a fiscal conservative. His popularity has continuously declined from that point, as he has consistently moved leftward.
First the large increases in spending.
Then the confiscation of property rights.
Followed by the huge increase in indebtedness.
Topped off by the codification of the homosexual agenda ..
And now an increase in the minimum wage!
That Austrian is certainly the fiscal conservative that all prayed for in October 2003.
Bill Chambers for Governor ! He'll get California back on the right track !
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