Minimum wage referendum delayed until April
by Michelle Samenfeld, City Editor
Minimum-wage campaign organizers will have to wait until April to let voters decide if Madison should set a municipal minimum wage at $7.75, a setback organizers say they will be able to overcome.
Last Monday, the Madison Fair Wage Campaign announced they were working to collect the 12,853 signatures needed to put the referendum on the Feb. 17 presidential primary ballot.
According to state law, however, charter ordinances, when done by citizen initiatives, can only be placed on general-election ballots, not primary ballots.
For campaign organizers, the delay is a setback, because more people will be voting in February’s Wisconsin Democratic presidential primary than in the April 6 general election.
“Since this is a majoritarian issue, it’s a setback, because less people will be voting in April,” said Ald. Austin King, District 8, one of the campaign’s primary organizers. “I’m still confident we’ll get a majority in April, though,” King added.
Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz has disapproved of the campaign, because the proposed referendum cannot be changed in city committees or by the City Council. Cieslewicz said he is likely to introduce a similar minimum-wage ordinance that would be open to review by city committees and public hearings.
If the proposed ordinance acquires the necessary amount of signatures, it will go before the City Council for approval. If they vote “no,” the referendum will be on the April 6 ballot.
If the mayor’s proposal is accepted by the City Council, and the campaign’s proposal is rejected, the referendum would still be on the ballot, however.
In addition, a Republican state lawmaker announced Monday his plans to draft legislation to require all municipalities to abide by the state’s minimum wage, which would prevent Madison from raising its own minimum wage in a referendum.
Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, encouraged by Gov. Doyle’s opposition to dividing the state into different wage zones, argues workers will lose jobs if the minimum wage is increased.
