About 87,500 needed to qualify for November ballot, so issue should qualify
By PAUL HAMMEL
Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — Leaders for an initiative to raise Nebraska’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026 said Thursday they had submitted 160,000 signatures to qualify the issue for the November ballot.
About 87,500 signatures of registered voters are needed to put the issue before voters, so 160,000 should be more than enough to qualify.
About 10% to 15% of signatures are typically thrown out on petition drives, for various reasons, such as the signers not being registered to vote, election officials have said.
Thursday is the deadline for submitting signatures for the fall ballot, and at least two other initiatives — one to legalize medical marijuana and another to require voters to present identification before voting — are expected to submit petitions.
Advocates for raising the wage estimated Thursday that about 150,000 Nebraskans would benefit from the increase, or about 20% of the state’s workforce.
Nebraska’s minimum wage was last increased when voters approved another ballot initiative in 2014 that ultimately increased the wage to the current $9 an hour.
Advocates maintain that $9 an hour is too low to sustain a household and that raising the wage is “the right thing to do” amid rising costs of housing, food and fuel.
“Fair wages are the single best way to show employees that they are valued,” said Alma Cerretta, the owner of Mana Games and Cafe in Lincoln, at a press conference Thursday.
Opponents maintain that raising the minimum wage results in job losses and makes companies less competitive with states that don’t have higher minimum wages.
Gov. Pete Ricketts said Thursday that raising the minimum wage is not a “one size fits all” proposition. It may cost jobs and close shops in rural areas of the state, he said.
Kate Wolfe, campaign manager for Raise the Wage Nebraska, said many of the complaints about raising the minimum wage were raised in 2014 and turned out to be false.
Cindy Meyer of Omaha, a mother of two, said raising the minimum wage would reduce the “stress” of having to work two to three jobs and balancing that with spending time with her kids and husband.
“If everyone was earning at least $15 per hour, we would be able to take better care of ourselves and our families and contribute more to the community,” Meyer said.
Raise the Wage Nebraska reported spending $1.4 million in its latest state campaign finance report, filed on Thursday.
D.C. group largest donor
Its largest, single contribution came from a Washington, D.C.-based progressive group called the Sixteen Thirty Fund, which gave $634,490. Wolfe, when asked, did not identify the source of that group’s funding. Another Washington-based group, the Fairness Project, gave nearly $252,400.
Nebraska Appleseed provided nearly $200,000 for the initiative. Other Nebraska contributors included the ACLU of Nebraska, Civic Engagement Nebraska, the Center for Rural Affairs and the YWCA of Lincoln.
The petition signatures will now be examined by the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office and county election commissioners to see determine many are valid. The November ballot must be finalized by Sept. 16.