Signatures turned in
Word from Greensboro is that the committee turned in 6,400 signatures to the city clerk yesterday at a press conference that was attended by numerous community leaders. I've had a few calls from folks asking if we have enough signatures, given that nearly twice as many people voted last month in the local elections than had voted in 2005. Not knowing the answer myself, I asked committee member Ed Whitfield for his input. He explained that our committee initiated the citizens' initiative petition drive on December 1, 2006 and, at that time, the city clerk's office informed us that, given the election numbers from 2005, we would need approximately 4,900 signatures for our petition to formally be presented to the city council and that we had one year in which to collect those signatures. Since election day is regularly on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November (look here for an interesting explanation of why this is) and since we can only assume that the city clerk understood that a local election would, therefore, take place prior to Dec. 1, 2007, we remain under the assumption that our number of required signatures was 4,900. (Side note: the signatures were turned in on Dec. 3 because the clerk's office told committee members that, because Dec. 1 fell on a weekend, we had until the following Monday to turn in the petitions.)
If you have other questions about the campaign, reply here and I'll do my best to get you an answer. Since I'm no longer in Greensboro, it might take a while, but I'll respond as soon as I can.
posted by Jill Williams at
1:26 PM
2 Comments:
This is a very bad idea. Companies will be forced to lay people off in order to pay this wage. customer service will suffer, as many comapnies will be using skeletan work crews. poor customer service will cause a drop in profits, and lead to more layoffs and businesses closing.
NJM,
Your comment echoes much of what we've all been taught is the "conventional wisdom" behind minimum wage laws. The good news is that the evidence does not support your predictions nor the conventional wisdom. If you look at studies that have been conducted in the aftermath of virtually every minimum wage hike in recent history (many of these studies are linked on this site), you will see that these doomsday predictions have not come to pass. In fact, in many places (on local, state and federal levels) the economy has seen an upturn in the aftermath of minimum wage hikes. Some might argue that this is only because minimum wage hikes are only approved when the economy is in a stable position to begin with. But it could also be explained by a population with a higher level of income that is likely to be quickly reinjected into the local economy.
Thanks for jumping into the conversation, Mr. "No longer" mayor of Greensboro.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home