Senate Leadership
June 23, 2008
Democrats Want to Fix Governor Rell’s Costly Mistakes
Increasing the minimum wage would help at least 65,000 low-income workers in Connecticut
Senator Williams at a press conference the day the General Assembly planned to override the governor’s veto of a bill to increase the minimum wage in Connecticut. (June 23, 2008)
Senate President Donald E. Williams, Jr. joined Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney; Sister Teresa Fonti, co-director of the House of Bread Soup Kitchen in Hartford; and David Thomas, AARP Connecticut Economic Security Chairman to detail why it is vitally important to override Gov. Rell's veto and raise the minimum wage.
Senate Democrats want to--despite Gov. Rell's opposition--increase the minimum wage, increase the tip credit for bartenders and wait staff, and create a Health and Human Services Cabinet. A two-thirds majority is needed in both the House (101) and Senate (24) in order to override a gubernatorial veto.
"We do not relish this fight with Gov. Rell," said Senator Williams, "but we are compelled to stand-up for what we believe is right. Denying a modest increase in wages to the lowest income workers, many of whom are single mothers, is just plain wrong--especially at a time when the cost of groceries and gas is skyrocketing."
"Today, Connecticut residents face gas and electric prices that are among the highest in the nation, but Connecticut's minimum wage has not kept up with those essential expenses," said David Thomas, AARP Connecticut Economic Security Chairman. "If the state does not act now, we will be pushing hard working Connecticut families onto the public dole--costing the state millions."
HB 5105--Raises the state minimum hourly wage from $7.65 to $8.00 beginning January 1, 2009, and to $8.25 beginning January 1, 2010. For a full-time worker making the minimum wage, the minimum wage hike would amount to a weekly increase of $14. The bill passed by a two-thirds margin in both the House (106-45) and the Senate (25-11).
SB 55--Increases the minimum wage tip credit for hotel and restaurant employers from 8. 2% to 11% for bartenders and from 29.3% to 31% for service employees (waiters and waitresses) effective January 1, 2009. The tip credit allows hotels and restaurants to pay service employees and bartenders, who customarily and regularly receive tips, less than minimum wage as long as tips make up the difference. Under the bill, a hotel or restaurant can pay (1) a bartender 11% less than minimum wage and (2) a waiter or waitress 31% less than minimum wage. Incredibly, 178 out of 183 members of the General Assembly voted in favor of this bill but Gov. Rell vetoed it.
Senate Bill 678--Establishes a four-year, 25-member Health and Human Services Cabinet in the state Office of Policy and Management, the governor's budget office. The cabinet would have been responsible for assessing funding for Connecticut's nonprofit community providers, which provide community-based behavioral health, developmental disability, education, and substance abuse programs to approximately 500,000 Connecticut children and adults.
The cabinet would be a diagnostic tool and a means to keep nonprofits afloat and protect the state from incurring even greater costs. According to the non-partisan state Office of Fiscal Analysis, there would have been no cost to the state or municipalities for the creation of the cabinet or its work; all work would have been done "within available appropriations," according to the language of the bill. The legislature understood the need to provide this support for non-profits and approved this legislation unanimously during regular session.
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Senator Williams’ Derek Slap |
Listing of Leadership’s recent press releases. |
Senator Looney’s Derek Slap |
