Connecticut ping!
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
Posted on 04/10/2006 12:19:51 PM PDT by Blue Turtle
MANCHESTER -- Mayors of two Connecticut cities that have "living wage" ordinances, which require businesses contracting with municipalities to guarantee certain pay levels to workers, say the predictions of doomsayers have not occurred and life for those at the lower end of the economic scale has gotten better.
New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. said he was skeptical when talk of the ordinance first came to his city in the mid-1990s, but in the years since it passed in 1997, the city has not lost businesses and workers are getting more money to live on.
Mayor Eddie M. Perez's view of Hartford's living wage ordinance echoes DeStefano's. Perez was a supporter from the start, he said, but he acknowledged that there have been a few problems. Perez said there has been inconsistency and lack of clarity in the implementation of the ordinance, but the city is learning how to strengthen it.
"I think it's more of a statement of what we value when we expend tax dollars. We're spending tax dollars here and I just sense, as I talk to people around town, that that money shouldn't go to fund low-cost jobs. It should go for high-quality jobs for people to make a living," said Democratic Director Dave Sheridan, who helped draft the proposal.
"In fact, we find it very easy to spend other people's money," he added. "It's our duty, and our right. We know what's best for the taxpayer."
sarc.
So, I guess they pay illegals a living wage as well ... so what's the problem. Or do they pay illegals in cash...
We're spending tax dollars here and I just sense, as I talk to people around town, that that money shouldn't go to fund low-cost jobs. It should go for high-quality jobs for people to make a living," said Democratic Director Dave Sheridan
The "low-cost" jobs still have to be done, but now the taxpayers get to pay "high-quality" prices to those hired to do them.
That Dave, he's a real generous sport when he gets other people's money in his hands.
Mayor 'Perez' is not looking out for me, he is looking how to best spend my hard earned money.
I don't know the difference between a "living wage" and a "working wage". These terms confuse me.
They can call it successful. Let's see what the economic indicators show. It's one thing to assert something based on his feelings; it's quite another to back it up with real economic data.
Walk the streets of Hartford and tell me this has helped the poor. Block after block after block of shuttered stores. A pathetic, empty mall built around an abandoned hockey rink. Only two restaurants in the whole downtown open after 6 p.m. All the well-paid insurance types scrambling to be out of town before sundown.
And yes, the fast food chains were the first to cut and run.
Connecticut ping!
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
This a story that belongs in the 'self-fulfilling prophecy' file. The people who backed the measure in the first place are pronouncing it a success. Well... sort of... they still want to tweak it some more. It's a 'dog bites man' story.
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