Paid Sick Leave and Minimum Wage Ballot Proposals are Bad for Michigan Economy
LANSING (September 5, 2018) – The state’s leading small business organization in Michigan, NFIB, applauded Michigan lawmakers today for adopting paid sick leave and minimum wage ballot proposals to keep them off the November statewide ballot.
“Out of state groups wanted these proposals to go to the ballot and spent millions of dollars in funds from their hidden donors to mislead the public into believing that the cost would come out of the pockets of “rich corporate business owners”, said NFIB’s State Director in Michigan, Charlie Owens. “The sad truth for Michigan is that the real costs and consequences of these extreme proposals would have fallen on small business and struggling families that faced losing their jobs”.
When NFIB members were asked if the legislature should stop mandated minimum wage and paid leave proposals from going to a statewide ballot, 79 percent of the small business members of NFIB said yes. Another 88 percent agreed that the legislature should make changes to these proposals to lessen their impact on small business.
“Any pretense by supporters of these proposals that they were a legitimate Michigan citizen “grassroots” movement for reform is laughable,” said Owens. “Both proposals were bought and paid for by out of state groups funded by organizations that refused to disclose their donors to the public. The signatures were gathered by paid professional firms that misrepresented the negative costs and impacts of these proposals to obtain signatures.”
Michigan’s Constitution gives lawmakers 40 session days to enact or reject any law proposed by initiative petition. Owens said that lawmakers fulfilled their elected duty to act to prevent outside special interests from imposing their will on Michigan citizens.
“If these proposals were allowed to go to the ballot, and they succeeded in passing, a three-fourths super-majority of both legislative chambers would be required to make any changes to the law”, said Owens. “This is an impossible requirement to meet and Michigan would have been stuck with the most stringent paid sick leave and minimum wage employer mandate in the country”.
Owens said that, by adopting the proposals, lawmakers now will now be able to craft practical and sound solutions that will work better for citizens and small business, rather than the “all or nothing” extreme mandate sought by outside special interest groups.
