Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s tenure in office has been marked by the kinds of anti-democracy maneuvers that would make the current national leader of his party, Donald Trump, proud.
From signing lame duck session bills including anti-union “right to work” legislation and then circumventing the will of the people in 2012 by reinstating an emergency manager law that was repealed by voters (setting the stage for the Flint water crisis), Snyder and the Michigan GOP have shown a contempt for democracy.
On Friday, Snyder cemented that anti-democratic legacy by signing bills gutting would-be ballot proposals to raise the state’s minimum wage and mandate that employees be allowed to earn paid sick time, all before he leaves office.
As reported in September, Michigan’s Republican-led legislature voted to keep the Michigan Time to Care and One Fair Wage ballot proposals away from voters by adopting both bills themselves. By pre-empting a vote on the proposals, Republican lawmakers were then able, in a move some say violated the state’s constitution, to amend them.
And amend them they have. According to the Gongwer News Service’s report about Snyder’s action, the One Fair Wage proposal would have raised the state’s minimum wage to $12 by 2022 and slowly eliminated employers’ ability to pay tipped workers just 38 percent of the state minimum.
Under the bill signed Friday by Snyder, the state’s minimum won’t hit $12 an hour until 2030, tipped workers will continue to receive a lesser minimum wage, and the new law will also eliminate a provision of the ballot proposal that would have increased the state minimum wage to keep up with inflation.
Likewise, the gutted version of the Michigan Time to Care proposal, as signed by Snyder, has significantly reduced both the amount of time off employees can earn and the number of employees who will be covered by the new law.
While Michigan’s governor is busy making it harder for the state’s working people, the state’s GOP leadership is working to ensure that citizens will have an even harder time making their voices heard at the ballot box in the first place. On Thursday, Republicans in the state house passed a bill at 11 PM that would add onerous geographic and other requirements to the already time-consuming, expensive task of getting a citizens’ initiative to the ballot.
Gongwer’s report quotes a Snyder statement claiming that the governor looked at the legislation, “through a policy lens—is it the right policy for the state of Michigan and Michiganders as a whole?”
Reaction to Snyder’s move was quick.
“We are saddened to learn Gov. Snyder has signed this disgraceful bill that subverts the will of 400,000 Michiganders who supported raising the minimum wage," Dr. Alicia Renee Farris, steering committee chair of One Fair Michigan in a statement issued to the press, said. "We will be continuing to fight to uphold the constitution and for One Fair Wage to uplift over a million Michiganders and allow everyone the right to work full time and feed their families.”
Dawn Wolfe is a freelance writer and journalist based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.