LANSING, Mich. – Gov. Rick Snyder on Friday signed laws to significantly scale back citizen-initiated measures to raise Michigan’s minimum wage and require paid sick leave for workers, finalizing an unprecedented Republican-backed legislative maneuver that opponents blasted as shameful.
To prevent minimum wage and earned sick time initiatives from going to voters last month, GOP lawmakers approved them in September so they could be more easily altered after the election with simple majority votes rather than the three-fourths support that would have been needed if voters had passed the proposals.
FILE – In this July 24, 2018 file photo, Gov. Rick Snyder answers questions after a press conference in Portage, Mich. Snyder has signed Republican-backed laws to significantly scale back citizen-initiated measures to raise the minimum wage and require paid sick leave for workers. The term-limited Republican governor’s move Friday, Dec. 14, 2018, is sure to prompt a lawsuit over an unprecedented strategy adopted by lame-duck lawmakers. (Daniel Vasta/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP File)The tactic – never done until now – was pushed by the business community as necessary to avoid jeopardizing the economy. But it was criticized as an unconstitutional attack on voters’ will at a time Republicans in Michigan are trying to dilute the powers of incoming elected Democrats.
In another Midwest state, GOP Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Friday signed a sweeping package of legislation that restricts early voting and weakens the Democratic governor and attorney general.
Michigan’s Snyder signed the bills in private and issued a statement calling them a “good balance” between what the ballot drives proposed and what legislators drafted initially as replacements.