Last week something appalling happened in Lansing that showed why so many of us no longer trust government.
For months, two citizens’ groups had worked hard to put two initiatives on the ballot that would make life better for working people. One, sponsored by a group called MI Time to Care, required employers to allow workers to earn sick time.
Once it became law, employees of small businesses with less than 10 employees would be allowed to earn and use up to 40 hours of paid sick time every year, or one week.
Those with more employees could earn up to 72 hours. Incredibly, some places now don’t give workers any sick time, meaning some come to work, sneezing, coughing and infecting those around them, while others lose their jobs.
The other, sponsored by a group called Michigan One Fair Wage, would have increased the minimum wage from its current $9.25 an hour to $12 by 2022, and tied it to the inflation rate after that, so workers wouldn’t fall behind.
But it also did something much more important and controversial — it would gradually raise the minimum for “tipped employees” –primarily restaurant servers — from the current, wretched $3.52 an hour, to the same as everyone else.
They would finally reach the same level in 2024. Republicans and restaurant owners absolutely hated even the idea of that, and claimed they’d go out of business.
Please. There are all sorts of alternatives they could pursue, including raising wages and eliminating tips. In any event, consider that a “princely” wage of $12 an hour means an annual salary of $24,900 a year, right at poverty level if your server is a single mom, as many are, with three kids.
These were all set to be on the ballot. Each got enough signatures and was certified, causing a certain dull horror to creep through Republican circles. They strongly suspected both would win at the polls, costing their donors money.
Worse, they sensibly believed this would bring out a flood of poorer voters who don’t always show up for midterm elections, and don’t vote Republican when they do.
But they had one more trick they could, and did, pull. Thanks to a quirk in the Michigan Constitution, once a citizen-led initiative is certified for the ballot, there is one way the legislature can avoid letting the people decide:
They can vote to make it a law, as long as they don’t change a word. Which is precisely what they did last week. They enacted both proposals, to provide workers with sick time and to raise the minimum wage. They are now law.
But, according to the GOP majority’s plan …not for long.
This is their scheme: They passed these proposals, but didn’t give them what’s called “immediate effect.”
That means they wouldn’t take effect until sometime next year. But Republicans plan to make sure both proposals are stillborn, by coming back in a “lame duck” session after the election, and repealing them or “modifying” them beyond all recognition. “We will consider different options and a whole suite of things we think are more friendly to Michigan,” the odious Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof said.
Meekhof, in case you don’t remember, has consistently done everything he could to make it hard for people to vote, to protect big donors who want to keep their identities secret, and to destroy unions and lower wages whenever he could.
Even if his voters were paying attention, he is term-limited, out of office in a few weeks, and couldn’t care less what you, or I, or anyone except those who pay him think.
Mark Brewer, a former state Democratic Party chair, contends that it would be illegal for lawmakers to try and overturn this legislation for narrowly partisan interests.
He told the online magazine Bridge that “if the Legislature adopts this proposal and amends it in any way, we will sue.”
Nobody knows how successful such a lawsuit could be. What we do know is that the system isn’t working.
This is one more proof of that. For many voters, especially Detroiters, this is nothing new.
Six years ago, the Emergency Manager law, enacted years before, was repealed by voters in November 2012 – but the legislature almost immediately passed another such law.
They did so because they could. Because a combination of hopelessly gerrymandered districts, term limits, and huge and mainly secret contributions from special interests mean they don’t have to care what the voters think about anything.
Unless and until some or all of this changes, some voters are bound to be downright cynical about politics.
Some may even come to believe their votes are totally meaningless, and give up on democracy.
Why, I don’t know how anyone could feel that way, just because their vote and their power have been stolen.
***
Still a chance for straight ticket voting: Last week, in another outrage that seemed certain to have the effect of partly suppressing the black vote, a federal appeals court panel took away Michigan voters’ option to check a box and cast a straight party vote.
This is the first time since the 1890s that voters won’t have that choice. As a result, look for longer lines at all voting places and a lot of voters skipping certain races. In many working class and inner-city areas, where people have limited time between shifts and there often aren’t enough voting booths anyway, you may see discouraged people give up and not be able to cast a vote at all.
Here’s how all this happened: Two years ago, the Michigan legislature banned straight-ticket voting for clearly partisan reasons: Most of the time, more Democrats vote the straight ticket than Republicans, giving them an advantage in so-called “down ballot races,” like contests for the State Board of Education or local races.
U.S. District Judge Gershwin Drain declared that law unconstitutional, noting that it “placed a disproportionate burden on African Americans’ right to vote.”
The straight-ticket ban was temporarily blocked then; last month, Judge Drain made that ban permanent by saying the law was unconstitutional. But Ruth Johnson, Michigan’s Republican Secretary of State, went to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which assigned a three-judge panel to the case, and they overturned Drain, 2-1.
That means each of us will have to check every single box if we want to vote in every race, spending an estimated three extra minutes in the voting booth. But there is a way to fix this.
Last week, the Board of State Canvassers finally approved putting the “Promote the Vote,” constitutional amendment on the state ballot. It would do a number of good things, including allowing everyone to vote absentee if they want – and it would also restore the option to cast a straight ticket ballot if that’s what voters want to do.
Personally, I seldom vote straight ticket. But I think we should have the right to do so. Republicans will likely spend a ton and tell many outrageous lies to try to keep it from passing.
But don’t let them fool you. This — and the Voters Not Politicians amendment – may be the two most important things on the ballot this year, more so than any of the candidates.
Don’t, whatever you do, forget to vote for them.
