By Salvador Rizzo and Jenna Portnoy/The Star-Ledger

TRENTON — Voters will get the last word in New Jersey's year-long debate over raising the minimum wage.

The state Assembly gave final approval today to a plan by Democratic leaders that puts a wage increase on the November ballot — defying Gov. Chris Christie, conservative lawmakers and business groups who say the state economy is too weak to handle it. The measure passed 46 to 31.

If voters approve the increase, the wage floor would rise from $7.25 an hour to $8.25. A yes vote would also amend the state constitution to trigger automatic cost-of-living increases every year based on the Consumer Price Index. The changes would began in September 2014.

“I think in November it will be time for the people of New Jersey to speak and I think that will settle the issue once and for all," Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) said.

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Minority Leader Jon Bramnick (R-Union) called the referendum an unprecedented misuse of the state's governing document.

“So the message we’re sending to the business community is we’re imposing in the New Jersey constitution an automatic rise regardless of the economy, regardless of feelings of the Legislature in the future," Bramnick said.

With today's vote, the last of four that Democrats needed to get the issue on the ballot, Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Oliver bypassed a veto last month by Christie. The Republican governor suggested that the $1 increase be phased in over three years instead and rejected the yearly increases. But Christie has no role in constitutional amendments and cannot remove the question from the ballot.

The Democrats agreed on their strategy after months of wrangling between Oliver, who first wanted to pass a bill and seek a compromise with Christie, and Sweeney (D-Gloucester), who said politicians needed to be removed from minimum wage matters entirely.

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The increase is popular with a majority of New Jersey voters, according to recent polls, and having it on the ballot injects a popular issue that could rally the Democratic base in an election year with all 120 legislative seats and the governor's office up for grabs.

Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said Democrats are likely to benefit in November but may not change the state's political landscape.

"When we ask one of those motherhood and apple pie questions, and that's what the minimum wage is, everybody says yes," Carroll said. "Whether or not people will favor putting it in the constitution is another question. The Jersey constitution is a fairly simple one."

In his State of the Union address this week, President Obama suggested raising the minimum wage to $9 across the country. If New Jerseyans approve the ballot question and Obama is successful, the wage would rise to $9 instead of $8.25 and keep rising every year to offset inflation.

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