Roll Call! Senate Overrides Governor’s Veto with $12.55 Minimum Wage, (24-6), 2020

in the State Senate
on February 13, 2020, by a vote of
24-6
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Purpose: To raise the state minimum wage from the current mark $10.96 to $12.55 by 2022, with increases tied to inflation afterward, overriding the Governor’s veto. The House would also need to override the Governor’s veto in order for the bill to become law.
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Analysis: : This version of S.23 would increase the minimum wage to $11.75 in 2021 and $12.55 in 2022. Each year afterwards, the minimum wage would be increased by the rate of the inflation, that is, “CPI.” The Consumer Price Index (CPI) level is calculated by the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics and is expected to be 2.4% per year in the near term.
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Those voting YES believe the positive impact of raising the minimum wage (putting more money into some people’s pockets) will outweigh the negative impacts.
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Those voting NO believe the negative impacts of increasing the minimum wage (eliminating some low-wage jobs, potential cutbacks in hours for low wage employees, the potential loss of benefits greater than wage increases for workers earning a higher wage, overall decline in economic activity, higher prices for goods and services particularly as they impact Vermonters living on fixed incomes, the impact on healthcare services funded through Medicaid, the impact on child care costs, financial burden on struggling small businesses, and the implications regarding the “benefits cliff”), outweigh the positive impacts.
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As Recorded in the Senate Journal, Thursday, February 13, 2020: “Thereupon, the pending question, shall the bill pass, notwithstanding the refusal of the Governor to approve it?, was decided in the affirmative on a roll call required by the Vermont Constitution, Yeas 24, Nays 6. (the necessary override two-thirds vote having been attained)….(Read the Journal, p. 178 – 179)

How They Voted

Timothy Ashe (D/P-Chittenden) – YES
Becca Balint (D-Windham) – YES
Philip Baruth (D-Chittenden) – YES
Joseph Benning (R-Caledonia) – NO
Christopher Bray (D-Addison) – YES
Randy Brock (R-Franklin) – NO
Brian Campion (D-Bennington) – YES
Alison Clarkson (D-Windsor) – YES
Brian Collamore (R-Rutland) – NO
Ann Cummings (D-Washington) – YES
Ruth Hardy (D-Addison) – YES
Cheryl Hooker (D-Rutland) – YES
Debbie Ingram (D-Chittenden) – YES
M. Jane Kitchel (D-Caledonia) – YES
Virginia Lyons (D-Chittenden) – YES
Mark MacDonald (D-Orange) – YES
Richard Mazza (D-Chittenden-Grand Isle) – NO
Richard McCormack (D-Windsor) – YES
James McNeil (R-Rutland) – NO
Alice Nitka (D-Windsor District) – YES
Corey Parent (R-Franklin) – NO
Chris Pearson (P-Chittenden) – YES
Andrew Perchlik (D-Washington) – YES
Anthony Pollina (P/D-Washington) – YES
John Rodgers (D-Essex-Orleans) – YES
Richard Sears (D-Bennington) – YES
Michael Sirotkin (D-Chittenden) – YES
Robert Starr (D-Essex-Orleans) – YES
Richard Westman (R-Lamoille) – YES
Jeanette White (D-Windham) – YES

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