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While others pick sides, Talent silent on minimum wage measure
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| Parent(s) |
Race
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| Contributor | RP |
| Last Edited | RP Aug 17, 2006 12:11pm |
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| Category | Editorial |
| Media | Newspaper - Kansas City Star |
| News Date | Sunday, August 13, 2006 06:10:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Locked in a partisan dispute, the U.S. Senate has been unable to agree on legislation raising the federal minimum wage.
But Missourians will get a chance to decide the issue themselves this November, with a ballot measure that would raise the state's minimum wage from the federal level of $5.15 an hour to $6.50, effective Jan. 1. Each year after that, the state's wage rate would continue to rise with inflation.
State Auditor Claire McCaskill has made her support for the minimum wage increase a frequent talking point in her Democratic Senate campaign against Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Talent.
Talent, however, has refused to take a position on the minimum wage ballot measure.
"I don't generally take positions on state and local issues, including ballot issues," Talent said Friday, echoing a response he has given several times before.
Talent explains that it's his role to take positions on federal issues - for example, on a minimum wage bill being considered in Washington. And he adds: "I think it's a little presumptuous for federal officers to just freely tell, to just prolifically or regularly tell state and local people - Missourians - about how they ought to handle other issues."
Of course, Talent already has made a very high-profile exception to his rule against taking sides on Missouri ballot issues.
After considerable deliberation, Talent came out in opposition to a proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would protect embryonic stem cell research in Missouri.
That, Talent insists, will be his only exception this year. |
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