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Senator says he fears wage-law impasse
Governor holds out hope that lawmakers can come to an agreement
By David Miles
The New Mexican
Senate President Pro Tem Ben Altamirano
predicted Tuesday that lawmakers will adjourn this year’s legislative session
March 17 without increasing the state’s minimum wage.
Altamirano made the comment after a House
committee changed his bill to make it identical to legislation introduced in
the House by Speaker Ben Luján, D-Nambé.
That set up a potential repeat of last year’s minimum-wage impasse,
when legislators were not able to work out differences in bills that Altamirano and Luján had
sponsored.
“I have a feeling that this is the end of the bill,” Altamirano, a Silver City Democrat, said after Tuesday’s
committee vote. New Mexico’s current statewide
minimum wage is $5.15 an hour, the same as the federal pay floor.
The Altamirano bill passed by the Senate
(Senate Bill 324) would have boosted the state’s minimum wage to $6.50 next
year and $7.50 in 2009, but did not include any future adjustments for
inflation.
As amended by the committee, however, the bill would raise New Mexico’s minimum wage to
$6.50 in July and $7.50 an hour in January 2008. Starting in 2009, the
minimum wage would rise each year based on the percentage increase in the
Consumer Price Index.
Another key difference with Lujan’s House Bill 759 was that Altamirano’s original bill would have prohibited local
governments from raising local minimum-wage requirements higher than the
state’s until Jan. 1, 2013. That provision would
not have applied to local governments such as the cities of Santa Fe and Albuquerque that already had set
their minimum wages higher than the state’s before Jan. 1, 2007.
The minimum wage in Santa Fe is $9.50 for employers
with at least 25 employees. The City Council will vote late this year on
whether to increase the rate to $10.50 per hour in 2008.
As currently written, neither bill would stop local governments from
raising their minimum wages higher than the state’s.
The House version, which businesses objected to, also doesn’t include
agriculture exemptions.
Tuesday’s action on Altamirano’s bill came
on a 3-2 party-line vote of the House Labor and Human Resources Committee,
which also endorsed Lujan’s bill and sent both measures to the House Business
and Industry Committee.
Democratic Reps. Miguel Garcia of Albuquerque, Manuel Herrera of
Bayard and Sheryl Williams Stapleton of Albuquerque voted for the altered Altamirano bill. Republicans Candy Spence Ezzell of Roswell and Shirley Tyler of
Lovington voted against the changes.
Gov. Bill Richardson backs Altamirano’s
original bill, and Altamirano doubted senators
would accept changes to the measure. The Senate had approved Altamirano’s original bill on a 35-7 vote.
Eric Witt, Richardson’s director of
legislative and political affairs, said he plans to keep working with Altamirano and Luján to try to
iron out their differences. Earlier Tuesday, Richardson held out hope that
lawmakers would come to an agreement on the minimum-wage measure.
“What we want is both houses to pass their versions, and then we’ll
look at the differences, and I believe we can resolve those differences,” Richardson said at a news
conference.
Many supporters of Lujan’s bill said its inflation adjuster and
allowing local governments to raise their pay floors higher than the state’s
were essential components of the measure. Luján
said inflation would erode the value of a $7.50 hourly minimum wage to less
than $6 an hour by 2013.
“We strongly support this protection of local control,” said Carol
Oppenheimer, co-chairwoman of the Santa Fe Living Wage Network, which worked
to get Santa Fe’s ordinance adopted.
City Councilor Karen Heldmeyer said
gloom-and-doom predictions regarding the effect of the Santa Fe’s ordinance on
business have not panned out since the ordinance took effect in July 2004.
“It was enormously good for the city of Santa Fe,” Heldmeyer
said.
Representatives of several labor, religious, health and social-justice
groups spoke in favor of Luján’s bill on Tuesday
while Terri Cole, president and chief executive officer of the Greater
Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, was the sole opponent of the measure.
“We believe the indexing and localoption
components in this measure will be harmful to business growth, especially
small-business growth,” Cole said.
The U.S. Senate and House are trying to work out their differences in
versions of legislation to increase the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an
hour. But Altamirano said the prospect of
congressional action should not dissuade New Mexico legislators from
boosting the state’s minimum wage.
Contact David Miles at 986-3036 or dmiles@sfnewmexican.com.
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