Kevin Hardy

kmhardy@dmreg.com

Republican lawmakers are pushing a bill that would freeze Iowa's minimum wage at $7.25 and strip local counties and cities of the ability to set their own wage limits.

If signed into law, House Study Bill 92 immediately would roll back minimum wage increases approved in Polk, Johnson, Wapello and Linn counties. The bill, which remains in a subcommittee of the House Local Government Committee, was introduced by Rep. Jake Highfill, R-Johnston.

The far-reaching bill also restricts the power of local governments to set their own labor regulations, create civil rights protections and even institute bans on the use of plastic bags at retail stores.

Critics who packed a subcommittee meeting Wednesday called the bill an affront to local government control. And after reading the proposal, several county supervisors said they likely would launch a court challenge if the bill is signed into law.

Highfill rejected the idea that his bill takes away power from counties and cities, arguing that they never had those powers. His bill, he said, merely formalizes what state law always intended: Local governments have no authority to legislate on labor issues such as the minimum wage.

"Contract law is state law or federal law," Highfill said.

Amy Nielsen, a Democratic House member and former North Liberty mayor, called the bill a broad overreach of state authority.

"I'm speaking as a former mayor," she said. "And on behalf of other local elected officials, I would like to say I'm quite frankly offended that you don't trust us to make the decisions for our own community."

'They're hypocrites'

Highfill's bill declares previous local minimum wage ordinances "void and unenforceable."

In October 2016, after months of sometimes rancorous debate, the Polk County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 to increase the minimum wage. After several rounds of increases, it would reach $10.75 by 2019, with further increases adjusted for inflation.

County officials blamed congressional and legislative inaction for pushing them to take action on the local level. Tom Hockensmith, the Democratic supervisor who led that effort, often said he hoped the local ordinances popping up across Iowa would prompt the legislature to consider a statewide increase in the minimum wage.

This bill was not what he had in mind.

"To pass a pre-emption bill without an increase in the minimum wage statewide is an embarrassment to our state," he said. "When we know that all the states adjacent except Wisconsin already have a minimum wage higher than us, this is really backward.

"Like I said, it’s just embarrassing."

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If passed, Hockensmith said Republicans would be contradicting their traditional principles of limited government and local control.

"What they’re saying is we want you to have local control, unless it's something we don’t like," he said. "They’re hypocrites."

Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett, a Republican, said the "Christmas tree bill" mashes too many issues together, rather than allowing legislators to vote on each separately.

"It may be a Republican bill, but it’s not a conservative bill," he said. "Conservatives believe in local control. And local government is the closest government to the people."

Iowa communities are not monoliths, Corbett said. Cedar Rapids has different needs than Sioux City, and each community should be allowed to govern locally.

"We just had this anti-Washington wave spreading across the country of people rejecting top-down government," he said. "That wave didn’t mean we now want Des Moines to tell everybody what needs to be done."

'I just beg you to not do this.'

Twenty-nine states have raised their wages above the $7.25 federal minimum rate. Iowa's minimum wage has remained at $7.25 per hour since 2008.

Democrats in both the Iowa House and Senate introduced legislation this session to raise Iowa's minimum wage.

But those bills are virtually guaranteed to go nowhere in the Republican-controlled legislature. At Wednesday's subcommittee meeting, Brian Meyer, D-Des Moines, promised to tack on amendment's to Highfill's bill.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad's office was noncommittal on the Republican's first stab at the minimum wage Wednesday.

"We will reserve judgment, as we always do, on this legislation until we see it in its final form," Branstad spokesman Ben Hammes said.

Lobbyists for the Iowa Association of Business Industry and the Iowa Restaurant Association said they supported the bill because it created a uniform wage across the state.

Representatives of local governments opposed it, though, with the lobbyist representing Cedar Rapids and Linn County calling the measure a "virtual elimination of home rule."

Labor advocates criticized subcommittee members Wednesday for moving to take back actual and promised wage hikes from workers in Linn, Polk, Wapello and Johnson counties.

"It's appalling to me that you would do this injustice to people who are hungry, people who can't afford childcare, people who have to lower their pride to get assistance and they don't want to," said Debbie Griffin, pastor of the Downtown Disciples church in Des Moines. "So to take away the pride and the equality and the ability for people to earn a living wage — I just beg you to not do this."

Highfill said the legislature could still move to raise Iowa's statewide minimum wage separately from his bill.

Workers 'don't have a voice'

Janelle Rettig, a Democratic member of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors, said the bill threatens the constitutional authority of counties, which, unlike cities, are empowered to protect the health and well-being of residents. Supervisors there raised the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour.

"To me, this is the state government seizing power," she said. "I think once you start down that path, they’re going to be seizing power across the board."

The more than 800,000 people who reside in the four counties that have passed minimum wage increases represent more than a quarter of Iowa's population.

"In effect, the day it is signed it will be a wage cut for all employee in those counties," Rettig said. "Employers could automatically cut wages. People are already living in poverty. In our case, we're at $10.10. If it goes back to $7.25, how are people supposed to pay their bills?"

The bill's sponsor said the legislature may consider a separate bill to raise the statewide minimum wage. But Rettig is skeptical that Republicans, who control both chambers of the legislature, have the will to move the wage above $7.25.

"All politics aside, people really need to go out and see who’s working minimum wage jobs and talk to them," she said. "They don’t have any lobbyists there. They don’t have a voice."

"Employers need to know what to expect"

HSB92 also bans cities or counties from passing ordinances that exceed restrictions under federal or state law regarding leave, hiring practices, employment benefits and scheduling practices.

Jessica Harder, director of public policy at ABI, said the business community wants uniformity on wage and labor issues, not a patchwork process across the state.

"We think there needs to be a coherent policy statewide on those things," she said. "Employers need to know what to expect and how to administer their business to their employees."

In recent years, some cities and states have passed laws requiring employers to provide certain benefits such as sick time pay and paid family leave. Under this bill, such changes could only be made at the Statehouse.

"This is going on in a lot of different states around us, not just here," Harder said. "So it's something we think we need to get out ahead of, because it's been tried in other places."

Changing Iowa's 50-year-old Civil Rights Act

The bill goes on to amend the Iowa Civil Rights Act, which was passed in 1965.

It forbids any local civil rights ordinances that afford protections beyond those in state and federal law. That move would ostensibly ban local governments from approving additional protections for certain protected classes such as racial minorities or the poor.

Highfill said it was aimed at eliminating discrepancies in housing regulations across the state. But city and county officials fear it could also jeopardize local human-rights ordinances, some of which provide protections against discrimination in employment and housing decisions that go further than state law.

Last year, Iowa City became the second city in the state to protect low-income renters using federal housing vouchers from being discriminated against by landlords.

Beginning in June, the ordinance made it unlawful for landlords to advertise that they do not accept applicants who participate in the Housing Choice Voucher program, or Section 8.

Rita Bettis, legal director for the ACLU of Iowa, said such provisions are important protections for local residents.

"The bill would restrict municipal civil rights or human rights ordinances," Bettis said. "But those local protections can be an important means available for cities to protect their residents from discrimination, and should be preserved."

Jennifer Kingland, a lobbyist with Iowa Association of Realtors, said her group supported that portion of the bill.

"Obviously we’re for fair housing practices and non-discriminatory practices," she said. "What we do have a problem with, though, is some landlords and homeowners being forced to do business with the government."

No plastic bag ban

The bill also says that counties and cities may not pass stricter laws regarding the sale or package of consumer merchandise.

That provision would ban cities from passing ordinances banning the use of plastic bags at stores.

Dubuque city officials are considering a ban or surcharge on plastic shopping bags to encourage the use of reusable bags or more biodegradable products, the Dubuque Telegraph Herald reported.