September 3, 2006
LIVING WAGE ORDINANCE!!! WHERE ARE THE FIGURES AND WHERE IS THE ANALYSIS?
The rush to a living wage ordinance is hard for a politician to resist. How can you be against it? Don’t you believe in helping your neighbor?
In church yesterday, my pastor requested that we sign cards urging the City Council to pass the ordinance. He said that all recipients of PILOT’s (payments in lieu of taxes) also toe the line and be included. He gave anecdotal evidence of other cities that had passed such ordinances and said that the City of Santa Fe had passed a city wide living wage ordinance. (He did not mention that Santa Fe is one of the wealthiest cities in the country).
My problem with the fast passing of this ordinance is this. Has anyone done an analysis of the cost and benefits of this ordinance? I ask the following questions and think that these should be answered before passing this ordinance.
What is the annual cost to the taxpayers of this ordinance? How many permanent and temporary city employees now receive less than the proposed living wage and what is the annual cost to bring them up to the living wage? What are their job titles?
How many city contractors paid less than the living wage last year and what would have been the cost to the taxpayers and the budget for the last fiscal year if the living wage ordinance had been in effect?
How many PILOT recipients pay less than the living wage and would they have accepted the PILOTS in the past if the living wage ordinance had been in effect?
Who is going to do the oversight on City contractors and PILOT recipients to make sure that they live up to the ordinance? Oversight, or lack of it, has always been the problem with all government programs, particularly City of Memphis programs.
Only after these questions have been answered, can a informed decision be made on this proposal. Without the information, it is a feel good decision made on the basis on anecdotal evidence and stories.
LIVING WAGE ORDINANCE!!! WHERE ARE THE FIGURES AND WHERE IS THE ANALYSIS?
The rush to a living wage ordinance is hard for a politician to resist. How can you be against it? Don’t you believe in helping your neighbor?
In church yesterday, my pastor requested that we sign cards urging the City Council to pass the ordinance. He said that all recipients of PILOT’s (payments in lieu of taxes) also toe the line and be included. He gave anecdotal evidence of other cities that had passed such ordinances and said that the City of Santa Fe had passed a city wide living wage ordinance. (He did not mention that Santa Fe is one of the wealthiest cities in the country).
My problem with the fast passing of this ordinance is this. Has anyone done an analysis of the cost and benefits of this ordinance? I ask the following questions and think that these should be answered before passing this ordinance.
What is the annual cost to the taxpayers of this ordinance? How many permanent and temporary city employees now receive less than the proposed living wage and what is the annual cost to bring them up to the living wage? What are their job titles?
How many city contractors paid less than the living wage last year and what would have been the cost to the taxpayers and the budget for the last fiscal year if the living wage ordinance had been in effect?
How many PILOT recipients pay less than the living wage and would they have accepted the PILOTS in the past if the living wage ordinance had been in effect?
Who is going to do the oversight on City contractors and PILOT recipients to make sure that they live up to the ordinance? Oversight, or lack of it, has always been the problem with all government programs, particularly City of Memphis programs.
Only after these questions have been answered, can a informed decision be made on this proposal. Without the information, it is a feel good decision made on the basis on anecdotal evidence and stories.
posted by watchdog at
9:50 AM
3 Comments:
I agree. I think I might be for a "living wage", but then again, I tend to like letting the market decide those kinds of things. I've seen nothing that tells us what the possible negative impact might be. could it be that this would cost jobs? What if the business owners decided they had to cut 1 job out of 3 to be able to conform?
Let's see some analysis before taking a leap of faith!
By
John Harvey, at 1:47 PM
Joe,
A blog???? That's great ... have to get the word out.
Bill F
By
Anonymous, at 11:25 AM
I would like to make a comment I am all for giving people a better wage, but when you get low wages like that you can get your health care free, your medication free and food stamps whereas we seniors are getting less than minimum a month, paying for medication, doctors, food and whatever else and I worked forty five years to go back to minimum wage. Help the seniors as well it is a shame the way this country denies that we exist.
Sincerely,
Phyllis
By
Anonymous, at 2:59 PM
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