PHOENIX — State lawmakers are moving to financially penalize cities that have a minimum wage higher than the rest of the state.
And they are doing it in a way designed to get around restrictions that voters put on legislators in 2016 when they said cities can have their own base wages.
SB 1108, awaiting Senate floor action, would allow employers in any city with a wage above the state minimum to claim a 10% credit for what they compute as the difference of what they have to pay versus what they could pay at the lower state figure.
They wouldn't even have to prove that they actually are paying anyone that minimum. Instead, as crafted by Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, the credit would occur right through the entire payroll, even to managers and executives.
What SB 1108 also does is deduct what the local employers claim in credits from the community's state revenue sharing.
There also are no figures on how much the affected cities would forfeit. In fact, the measure is written in a way that, depending on how many companies take the credit, it could deplete a community's entire state funding.
SB 1108 is currently aimed at two communities where voters have decided that workers should earn more than the minimum approved statewide in 2016. That figure, which is adjusted annually to compensate for inflation, currently stands at $13.85.
That $13.85 happens to be the current minimum in Tucson. But it is set to rise to $14.25 after the end of the year.
In Flagstaff, however, the...
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