NY Business Council: keep the working poor on govt handouts

Earlier this month, the New York state legislature actually did something. That itself was news.

Though it didn't adopt a budget, due four months ago, it did pass a bill that would've raised the state's minimum wage from the current $5.15 an hour to $7.15 by 2007. Unfortunately, Gov. George Pataki vetoed the sensible bill that would've put minimum wage workers a little closer to a reasonable standard of living.

For those of you without a calculator, a 40-hour week at the current minimum wage (bearing in mind that a lot of workers at that wage level don't get 40 hours) translates to a mere $206 dollars a week... before taxes and other mandatory deductions.

The governor's professed objection to the bill is that it should've been done at a national level and that it allegedly put New York at a competitive disadvantage with neighboring states. Apparently he feared that all the McDonald's and Wal Marts would flee New York's suburbia for Vermont and New Jersey.

Both houses of the legislature approved the measure overwhelmingly, including the Republican controlled Senate (51-8). It remains to be seen if they will attempt to override the veto.

The most obscene defense of the veto came from Robert B. Ward, the director of research for the lobbying group, the Business Council of New York. According to The New York Times, Ward called the veto a victory for struggling small businesses that would have been forced to pay additional Social Security and unemployment taxes. He said workers would actually be hurt by an increase in the minimum wage because it would endanger their eligibility for earned income tax credits, food stamps and, in some case, health benefits.

In other words, Ward objects to the bill because it would've allowed poor, WORKING Americans to pay for their food with their own money rather than relying on government handouts. How ridiculous!


As for it being a "victory" for small business owners, a friend of mine, who owns and runs his own small business, doesn't quite share Ward's gushing enthusiasm. The next entry is a guest essay written by him on the topic.