BALTIMORE – In her fourth month in office, Baltimore Maryland's new Mayor Catherine Pugh, a liberal Democrat, chose to veto her city council's decision to raise the city's minimum wage to $15.
The development was surprising. After all, in Illinois, the Democrat-controlled Chicago City Council has hiked the minimum wage to $13 per hour. Shortly thereafter, the Democrat-controlled Cook County Board of Commissioners voted to follow suit. Now, in the Democrat-controlled Illinois House, an effort to raise the statewide minimum wage to $15 per hour is moving forward.
Mayor Pugh explained her flip-flop on the issue
Hiking the minimum wage, Pugh explained, would cause employers to flee the city and result in a loss of job opportunities available to Baltimoreans. Given the "economic impact" of the policy, she asserted it was "not appropriate at this time" to implement it.
Pugh carefully walked reporters through her journey to the decision, emphasizing that she "did some research" on the potential impacts and spoke with small business owners, ministers, nonprofits, and other stakeholders before coming to her surprising conclusion.
Confronted with the reality of implementing liberal policies pitched as quick fixes to complicated problems like poverty, Pugh discovered things just aren't that easy. This was a politician who held a view and changed her mind when she investigated the consequences. Shocking.
What would be even more shocking is if the Illinois Democrats pondered the issue as seriously as Mayor Pugh, set aside the bullying efforts of public sector unions demanding the hike, and did what was best for everyone in the state of Illinois – promoting public policy that creates more and better jobs.
