We’re starting to hear it, “if people only knew what they were voting on…” they would NOT have voted overwhelmingly for Living Wage.
Oh really? There’s so many problems with these anti-democratic statements it’s hard to figure out where to start. It’s one thing for the reactionary fringe to say this, they’re just crying over spilled milk. But it’s quite another for elected officials to say it.
Doesn’t it fly in the face of a basic rational regarding their own election and status as an elected official? What does it mean when a decision-maker’s status relies on a vote of the people and then that same person interprets a subsequent vote of those same people as irrelevant? Voters count in one election but don’t in another?
The truth of the matter is many thousands more voters supported Living Wage in each city council ward than voted for any individual council member. Maybe that’s why nobody’s challenged the word “mandate” in the context of the Living Wage election results but instead want to argue voters were confused, had “Obamamania” or some other malady.
It’s not that hard to connect the dots. Voters in every ward voted to support Living Wage in a landslide. These voters expect their council member to express their will on the city council. But the final decision is up to the council member. Just don’t pretend your constituents are children who just didn’t understand.
December 13, 2008 at 6:42 pm
As I have read the web site the living wage is only for government workers. Private employers are only encouraged to enact the living wage. So now if a living wage is enacted in Bloomington then people making lower than the living wage will be supporting the living wage for employees of the city. That doesn’t sound like justice or fairness to me. If there is an inequity of property expense for some then maybe we should work for less taxes coming out of property and more from other sources. Or if it is hard for some people to make ends meet then they should be encouraged to budget more wisely. It seems the blame for lack of money is placed on the government, yet Jesus placed the decision for action and accountability on each individual. Mt. 25:40 is not directed to governments but to individuals.
February 28, 2009 at 11:21 pm
In these very tough economic times there is certainly enough wage inequity to go around. The citizens of Bloomington chose overwhelmingly to increase the wages of their lowest paid workers through the Living Wage referendum. To do nothing about low wage workers because all won’t benefit doesn’t seem to be a very progressive policy. We should do what we can based on our ability to achieve it. The formula to calculate Living Wage (percent of income for housing) is not a comment on housing costs or coupled to affordability issues. Living Wage can be calculated to a variety of measurements, housing was used because it is a known data point. Your point on good budgeting is well taken, but that doesn’t lessen the need for better wages.