Attorney David Couch of Little Rock said Friday he intends to submit to the attorney general's office on Monday a proposed initiated act that would raise the state's minimum wage from $8.50 an hour to $12 an hour by Jan. 1, 2022.
Attorney General Leslie Rutledge on Thursday rejected the ballot wording for another initiated act proposed by Couch that would increase the minimum wage from $8.50 an hour to $11 by Jan. 1, 2021.
That rejection prompted Couch to suggest that the Republican attorney general is using the ballot title approval process as a way to keep his proposal from qualifying for the Nov. 6 general election ballot.
But a spokesman for Rutledge disputed Couch's charge.
Couch authored and Arkansas voters approved in 2014 a proposed initiated act that gradually increased the minimum wage from $6.25 per hour initially to $8.50 per hour last year.
The proposal rejected by Rutledge on Thursday also would gradually raise the minimum wage, ending at $11 per hour on Jan. 1, 2021.
In a letter to Couch dated Thursday, Rutledge cited four particular ambiguities in declining to certify the proposed name and ballot title for Couch's proposal. The popular name is a brief summary of the ballot measure, and the ballot title is a lengthier description. Both appear on the ballot.
The attorney general's certification of the information is required for Couch to begin collecting the required 67,887 valid signatures of registered voters by July 6 to qualify the proposal for the general election ballot.
Among the ambiguities Rutledge cited: Couch's ballot title states his proposal would "amend the Arkansas Code concerning the State minimum wage" by "rais[ing] the current State minimum wage ..."
"I believe that such a bare and general reference to the increase of the 'State minimum wage' may lead to confusion amongst the voters and may cause them to believe that every hourly wage earner will or would be eligible to receive a raise in accordance with the terms of your proposed ballot title," Rutledge wrote in her six-page letter to Couch.
"For example, before voting on your proposed measure, voters would want to be informed as to whom the new minimum wage act would apply, and in what circumstances it would apply," Rutledge said. "Accordingly, the current law and the effects your proposed measure will have on it must be explained in a manner in which voters will fully comprehend what they are being asked to consider, and how the changes will or will not affect them."
She said the ambiguities she cited are sufficiently serious to require her to reject Couch's proposed ballot language.
"My office, in the certification of ballot titles and popular names, does not address the merits, philosophy, or the ideology of proposed measures," Rutledge wrote in her letter to Couch.
Couch said in a written statement that, except for the specifics on wage amounts, "this is the same ballot title that was approved [by the attorney general's office] in 2013 and voted on in the 2014 general election passing with 66% of the vote."
That 2014 proposal, whose signatures were challenged in court, was kept on the ballot by the Arkansas Supreme Court, he said.
"It is clear that the Attorney General is using the ballot title approval process as a mechanism to stop this measure from being voted on in 2018," Couch wrote in his written statement.
"The use of the ballot title approval statute as a pretext to violate the constitutional rights of the citizens of this state should not be tolerated," he said. "The initiative process guaranteed in our constitution should be respected. While today's measure is progressive in nature, the next measure stopped could be conservative."
In response, Rutledge spokesman Nicole Ryan that "in 2015, the Supreme Court set a very high bar for proposals to be determined as sufficiently clear to appear on the ballot.
"Attorney General Rutledge has made it abundantly clear that she is simply following through on her responsibility to ensure that voters fully understand what a 'for' or 'against' vote means," Ryan said in a written statement.
On April 20, Couch submitted to Rutledge's office a proposed act that would gradually increase the minimum wage to $12 an hour by Jan. 1, 2022, and also allow counties and municipalities to set minimum wages higher than those set by state or federal law.
"I wanted to give counties and cities the local option to make the wage higher should they choose to do so," Couch said.
Couch said Friday he anticipates Rutledge also will reject this proposed initiated act, so he plans to submit another proposal Monday to raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour.
A private committee backing a proposed constitutional amendment to authorize the creation of four casinos appealed to the state Supreme Court on April 17, after its proposed ballot wording was rejected four times by Rutledge. But the state Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Driving Arkansas Forward committee's effort to force the attorney general to approve that ballot wording.
The proposed amendment by the committee would allow the creation of four casinos: one each near racetracks in Hot Springs and West Memphis, where electronic games of skill are currently allowed, as well as new stand-alone casinos in Jefferson and Pope counties. More than half of the tax revenue drawn from the gambling would go to highways, hence the group's name. Attorney Alex Gray, representing the committee, submitted the committee's fifth proposal to the attorney general on Wednesday.
Metro on 04/28/2018