Arizona Supreme Court is going to decide whether thousands of workers will see a boost in their pay starting from 1st January under terms of a voter approved measure boosting minimum wages.
The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry are leading a coalition of business groups, which is urging the Supreme court not to increase the minimum wages. They argue that even though Proposition 206 will obligate the state employees from the raise, Arizona will be forced to boost pay for health care and social services contractors and pay to enforce the new law.
Last week both the arguments were rejected by a trail judge, which will be appealed now by the chamber
"If allowed to stand, the trial court's decision will allow drafters of ballot initiatives to spend unlimited money from the state's general fund without implicating the Arizona Constitution's revenue source rule, provided their initiatives are cleverly crafted carefully enough to avoid clearly mentioning of such expenditures," the Chamber's attorneys wrote in court papers. "Proponents will also be allowed to logroll disparate policy matters into a single initiative, so long as those policies touch the same general area of life."
Attorney General Mark Brnovich's office is defending the law along with supporters of Proposition 206 and his response to the Chamber appeal is due by the close of business Wednesday.
But Proposition 206 backers' responded with a file on mid-day said the judge was absolutely right when he rejected the single subject argument and found that the measure did not trigger the mandatory state spending. Even if it did, blocking the entire law is not warranted, because the state is not obligated to spend any additional some of cash.
"Finally, the most Chamber's allegations against Proposition 206 are, in fact the policy arguments which includes the increased costs, which will lead result to increase in governments spending upon entities that were fully aired before the November general election," they wrote.
"The proposition has been passed now with 58 percent of the vote, and public policy supports denying the request to delay implementing their will."
The the minimum raise in wage from $8.05 an hour to $10 from January 1 and will be further increased to $12 in 2020. By the time the wages hit $12 an hour, an estimated 30 percent of the Arizona workforce will see an increase in pay, by an analysis conducted by the Grand Canyon Institute. That could be more than 700,000 workers.
The Supreme court is yet to decide whether to temporarily block the law and stop the raise in workers wages by the end of the week. It will be the first test of Republican Government. Doug Ducey's expanded the Seven member Supreme Court. Two new justices were appointed by Ducey, who took their seats earlier in December. Ducey opposed the measure.
The business group’s broader challenge will be considered by the court at its February conference.
AMandeep
