Congressional candidates across upstate New York are trading blows over a bill to boost the national minimum wage, an issue seen by Democrats as a key election year vulnerability of the GOP.
In Utica, state senator Ray Meier came out Wednesday in support of a bill passed by the House last week that would boost the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour. The Senate is scheduled to vote on the bill Friday.
“It's a balanced approach that helps people who work hard, and that applies to workers and small business owners,” said Meier, who is running against Democrat District Attorney Michael Arcuri to replace retiring Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, a Republican.
Boehlert, after pushing for months for a stand-alone minimum wage bill, is the only New York Republican who did not vote on the House measure, which also included a cut in estate taxes that Democrats deride as a sop to the super-rich. The other eight New York Republicans in the House voted for the bill.
Boehlert spokesman Sam Marchio said he missed the vote because of a “long-standing family commitment,” and would have voted for it.
Meier, who has voted in the state legislature against minimum wage hikes, said the House move was correct because it contained other provisions that would help small businesses.
For weeks, Democrats have blasted Meier and incumbent New York Republicans on the minimum wage issue, charging they were following party leaders' commands instead of their voters' interests.
Republicans counter that they support both a minimum wage increase and an estate tax cut, because the tax cut would benefit dairy farmers.
Arcuri dismissed Meier's backing of the House bill - which he also supports - as a surrender of principle to politics.
“He clearly flip-flopped, but he didn't flip-flop because it's the right thing to do, he flip-flopped because that's what the Republicans told him to do,” said Arcuri.
The charges of inaction on a minimum wage increase have been leveled by Democratic challengers from one end of the state to the other, most notably against Reps. Randy Kuhl, a freshman representing the Southern Tier, and John Sweeney, whose district stretches from the Albany suburbs to Lake Placid.
Democrat Eric Massa, a retired Navy veteran hoping to unseat Kuhl, said at a campaign stop Wednesday with Gen. Wesley Clark that Republicans had “gobbed up” the bill.
“I called my opponent on it. He called me a liar, saying I was distorting his record. He said, ‘No, no I didn't vote against the minimum wage.' The reality is he voted against having a vote on the minimum wage and only in Washington, D.C. does that make sense,” said Massa.
Massa's complaint is one made frequently by Democrats who charge the estate tax cut is a “poison pill” cynically meant to give at-risk Republicans political cover in a tough election season.
“If ever there were an issue that clarified the voters' choices, it's the Republicans' refusal to allow a vote on raising the minimum wage until multi-millionaires are given millions in tax breaks first,” said Blake Zeff, spokesman for the state Democrats.
The bill would raise the hourly minimum wage by $2.10, phased in over three years. It would also exempt $5 million of an individual's estate and $10 million of a couple's from taxation by 2015. Over the same time, the top estate tax rate would fall from 46 percent this year to 30 percent.
The Senate is expected to vote on the minimum wage bill on Friday, but it may not survive Democratic opposition to the estate tax cut.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., urged fellow senators Wednesday to reject the bill with the tax cuts, saying it has been 10 years since the minimum wage was raised and working families “deserve better than to have this long overdue increase held hostage to politics.”
In upstate New York, Republicans like Meier and Sweeney argue the tax estate cut is crucial to dairy farmers who are not rich but someday hope to leave their valuable land to their heirs.
Dairy farmers, Sweeney said on the House floor last week, “have been begging to see this estate tax eliminated for years so they can sleep at night knowing they can pass the family farm onto their children without fear of the government forcing them to sell it because they can't afford the tax bill.”
Democrats raised a new alarm Wednesday about the minimum wage, claiming it could actually lower wages in seven states where tips are included in pay.
“It's a balanced approach that helps people who work hard, and that applies to workers and small business owners,” said Meier, who is running against Democrat District Attorney Michael Arcuri to replace retiring Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, a Republican.
Boehlert, after pushing for months for a stand-alone minimum wage bill, is the only New York Republican who did not vote on the House measure, which also included a cut in estate taxes that Democrats deride as a sop to the super-rich. The other eight New York Republicans in the House voted for the bill.
Boehlert spokesman Sam Marchio said he missed the vote because of a “long-standing family commitment,” and would have voted for it.
Meier, who has voted in the state legislature against minimum wage hikes, said the House move was correct because it contained other provisions that would help small businesses.
For weeks, Democrats have blasted Meier and incumbent New York Republicans on the minimum wage issue, charging they were following party leaders' commands instead of their voters' interests.
Republicans counter that they support both a minimum wage increase and an estate tax cut, because the tax cut would benefit dairy farmers.
Arcuri dismissed Meier's backing of the House bill - which he also supports - as a surrender of principle to politics.
“He clearly flip-flopped, but he didn't flip-flop because it's the right thing to do, he flip-flopped because that's what the Republicans told him to do,” said Arcuri.
The charges of inaction on a minimum wage increase have been leveled by Democratic challengers from one end of the state to the other, most notably against Reps. Randy Kuhl, a freshman representing the Southern Tier, and John Sweeney, whose district stretches from the Albany suburbs to Lake Placid.
Democrat Eric Massa, a retired Navy veteran hoping to unseat Kuhl, said at a campaign stop Wednesday with Gen. Wesley Clark that Republicans had “gobbed up” the bill.
“I called my opponent on it. He called me a liar, saying I was distorting his record. He said, ‘No, no I didn't vote against the minimum wage.' The reality is he voted against having a vote on the minimum wage and only in Washington, D.C. does that make sense,” said Massa.
Massa's complaint is one made frequently by Democrats who charge the estate tax cut is a “poison pill” cynically meant to give at-risk Republicans political cover in a tough election season.
“If ever there were an issue that clarified the voters' choices, it's the Republicans' refusal to allow a vote on raising the minimum wage until multi-millionaires are given millions in tax breaks first,” said Blake Zeff, spokesman for the state Democrats.
The bill would raise the hourly minimum wage by $2.10, phased in over three years. It would also exempt $5 million of an individual's estate and $10 million of a couple's from taxation by 2015. Over the same time, the top estate tax rate would fall from 46 percent this year to 30 percent.
The Senate is expected to vote on the minimum wage bill on Friday, but it may not survive Democratic opposition to the estate tax cut.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., urged fellow senators Wednesday to reject the bill with the tax cuts, saying it has been 10 years since the minimum wage was raised and working families “deserve better than to have this long overdue increase held hostage to politics.”
In upstate New York, Republicans like Meier and Sweeney argue the tax estate cut is crucial to dairy farmers who are not rich but someday hope to leave their valuable land to their heirs.
Dairy farmers, Sweeney said on the House floor last week, “have been begging to see this estate tax eliminated for years so they can sleep at night knowing they can pass the family farm onto their children without fear of the government forcing them to sell it because they can't afford the tax bill.”
Democrats raised a new alarm Wednesday about the minimum wage, claiming it could actually lower wages in seven states where tips are included in pay.
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Bill wrote on Aug 3, 2006 12:50 PM: