[media-credit name=’BEN SMIDT/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]State Assembly Democratic Leader Jim Kreuser’s series of public hearings on the state’s minimum wage moved onto friendly turf Thursday, encountering overwhelming support for an increase from a crowd in Madison.

State Rep. Spencer Black, Rep. Mark Pocan, Rep. Sondy Pope-Roberts, Rep. Terese Berceau, Rep. Joe Parisi, Sen. Mark Miller and Sen. Jon Erpenbach, all Democrats, conducted the hour-long session in the state Capitol. The hearing was one in a series of 12 statewide sessions Kreuser organized to let the public discuss proposals to raise the state’s minimum wage, which has remained stagnant at $5.15 an hour since 1997.

If legislators wanted debate during the hearing, they certainly did not find it Thursday. Speaker after speaker — 12 in all — came before the legislative panel, and each pleaded for an increase in the minimum wage. On a written survey distributed to the crowd before the hearing, all 67 people in attendance supported a wage hike.

George Twigg, representing Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, defended Madison’s decision to incrementally increase the city’s minimum wage to $7.75 in the face of state inaction.

“Madison is the first, but we’re not going to be the last community to say ‘seven years is too long,'” Twigg said.

University of Wisconsin student Bill Anderson, a member of the Student Labor Action Committee, railed on the UW economics department for “glorifying” the philosophies of 18th-century economist Adam Smith. Anderson accused the department of bowing down to the business community by blindly believing a spike in the minimum wage will translate into increased unemployment.

“Our economics community is in the service of the business community,” Anderson said of his experience taking economics classes. “I think it’s pretty obvious when you take an economics course at any university.”

Many speakers repeated a common theme: legislation calling for a statewide raise should not strip municipalities from setting their own wages. Because of this, several speakers denounced a proposal from State Sen. Robert Jauch that would establish a binding statewide minimum wage of $6.50.

Black said the unified message presented Thursday reflected the nature of the support for an increased wage in the Madison area.

“I think the public is overwhelmingly in support of the minimum-wage increase,” Black said. “The Republicans obviously know they are not supported by the public because they’re afraid to even have a vote on the issue.”

Gov. Jim Doyle advanced an administrative rule last fall calling for the state’s minimum wage to rise to $6.50 per hour, but a legislative committee subsequently blocked the rule’s implementation. However, the full legislature must vote on a bill, introduced in the Assembly and Senate this week, before the end of the session to uphold the committee’s decision.

With Doyle likely to veto the bill, Twigg and others Thursday accused Republicans of delaying the inevitable.

Republicans argue an increased price floor will lead to inefficiencies as employers are forced to pay artificially high wages. They also claim different cities setting individual wages will have detrimental effects on the economy.

Black admitted too high of a limit could prove harmful for a community, but said the onus of determining what that wage should be needs to be left to local decision-makers.

“The cost of living in Madison is significantly higher than the rest of the state,” Black said. “Communities are going to do what’s best for them. They’re going to set a minimum wage consistent with what their community needs.”