Rep. Litesa Wallace endorses Biss for governor
Tuesday, Jun 27, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Rep. Wallace is an African-American female legislator from Rockford. She is, in other words, potential running mate material…
Today, Daniel Biss announced the endorsement of State Representative Litesa Wallace.
“Daniel Biss is the leader we need to take our state back,” said Litesa Wallace. “I’ve had the pleasure of working with Daniel in Springfield for a few years now, most recently on our bill to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour. As a legislator, educator, therapist, and mother, I’m serious about fighting for economic justice for Illinois families, and I know Daniel feels the same way. He is the only candidate in this race who combines a powerful, positive vision and the experience to make that vision a reality—that’s why I endorse Daniel for Governor of Illinois.”
“It is an honor to receive Litesa Wallace’s support,” said Daniel Biss. “She is an inspiration with unparalleled dedication to working families and the courage to stand up to Bruce Rauner, most notably when he tried to slash child care. I look forward to working with Litesa in the coming weeks as we demand that Governor Rauner raise the minimum wage, and in the coming years as we enact progressive solutions to our state’s greatest problems.”
* And speaking of the minimum wage bill which was sent to the governor’s desk yesterday, here’s the Washington Post…
When Seattle officials voted three years ago to incrementally boost the city’s minimum wage up to $15 an hour, they’d hoped to improve the lives of low-income workers. Yet according to a major new study that could force economists to reassess past research on the issue, the hike has had the opposite effect.
The city is gradually increasing the hourly minimum to $15 over several years. Already, though, some employers have not been able to afford the increased minimums. They’ve cut their payrolls, putting off new hiring, reducing hours or letting their workers go, the study found.
The costs to low-wage workers in Seattle outweighed the benefits by a ratio of three to one, according to the study, conducted by a group of economists at the University of Washington who were commissioned by the city. The study, published as a working paper Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research, has not yet been peer reviewed.
On the whole, the study estimates, the average low-wage worker in the city lost $125 a month because of the hike in the minimum. […]
Yet the study will not put an end to the dispute. Experts cautioned that the effects of the minimum wage may vary according to the industries dominant in the cities where they are implemented along with overall economic conditions in the country as a whole.
And critics of the research pointed out what they saw as serious shortcomings. In particular, to avoid confusing establishments that were subject to the minimum with those that were not, the authors did not include large employers with locations both inside and outside of Seattle in their calculations. Skeptics argued that omission could explain the unusual results.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 10:31 am:
Seems to me that the people in control of hiring, hours, payroll, etc. happen to also be the people most opposed to the higher wages. Those same people aren’t exactly hurting for money, so they can easily withstand self-inflicted pain for as long as it takes to “prove” their point.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 10:39 am:
Biss knows who he “is” in this governor’s race and is trying to maximize that in building and growing from the ground up, endorsements included, is how that campaign and that Crew sees their route to winning the nomination and the general election.
Good on Biss with the endorsement. Good on Biss’ Crew, continuously building off where they know is their sweet spot.
The politics here, obvious in the building, maybe even building a ticket too.
- CCP Hostage - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 10:44 am:
As a Community Care Program provider, our rates of reimbursement from the state are determined by the state. Our employees are good people who do good work and we would like to pay them more. But between the budget impasse and our stagnant rates of reimbursement, moving minimum wage to $15 per hour will close us for sure.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 10:47 am:
I’ve asked Biss twice through his website as to how he plans to address the pension mess in this state…. No answer and I even live in his district. Another Madigan Lackey.
- Fax Machine - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 10:47 am:
I think its shaping up to be Pritzker-Kennedy-Biss. It’s 3 days to the end of the quarter and I’ve seen nothing from Pawar in terms of support or fundraising. Plus in terms of being Mr Progressive, Biss gives a better speech and doesn’t have Pawar’s Rahm baggage.
- Ratso Rizzo - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 10:53 am:
===- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 10:47 am:
I’ve asked Biss twice through his website as to how he plans to address the pension mess in this state…. No answer and I even live in his district. Another Madigan Lackey.===
If he won’t answer you, I will. Wait for all the tier 1 employees to leave the payroll, or induce them to retire, and pay off the past pension debt. Once everyone is tier 2, and past debt is repaid, pension issues are over. Pretty simple.
- cdog - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 11:02 am:
Hopefully the pandering political class realizes that targeting small business owners that are lucky to clear 2-3x their avg employee compensation, have no room to give for $15.
Go after multi-nationals that pay executives 200x what their average employee is compensated.
Mandate something there; lots of opportunity to help workers and shareholders who are being ripped off by the corporate class.
(And somebody needs to wake-up about automation replacing humans, because when that monster comes out from under the bed, it’s going to be ugly. This $15/hr nonsense is just going to accelerate that paradigm shift.)
- cdog - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 11:03 am:
Adding, to be post-appropriate, Biss is pandering with his $15/hr economic bomb.
- Fax Machine - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 11:04 am:
Drury is right that the Dems could have passed a minimum wage increase under Quinn or even passed one over Rauner’s veto but they punted on it.
- Shemp - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 11:09 am:
“Skeptics argued that omission could explain the unusual results.” Unusual? How about reasonably predictable?
As for the minimum wage in Illinois, I am still waiting for someone to tell me why it should be the same in Chicago as in Shelbyville. Or why Northbrook and Nokomis should be on the same level.
- Arock - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 11:15 am:
“Seems to me that the people in control of hiring, hours, payroll, etc. happen to also be the people most opposed to the higher wages. Those same people aren’t exactly hurting for money, so they can easily withstand self-inflicted pain for as long as it takes to “prove” their point.” - you have any facts to back this up? Most small business owners and start ups do not have that big a profit margin to begin with.
- weary - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 11:28 am:
== Those same people aren’t exactly hurting for money, so they can easily withstand self-inflicted pain for as long as it takes to “prove” their point.==
Businesses don’t exist to “prove their points”. The exist to make money. If they could still make the same money while paying higher wages, they would gladly do so. But they can’t pay higher wages unless they raise their prices to offset the increased payroll costs. And if they raise their prices, they lose business. So a minimum wage is really just a hidden tax that is ultimately paid by consumers. And those consumers may decide to either not buy the product (e.g. if it’s a restaurant, they stay home instead of going out to eat), or they buy the product somewhere else. Forcing a business to have higher costs does not help anyone. It’s an artificial manipulation of the free market by amateurs who have obviously never actually tried to run a business.
- Periwinkle - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 11:41 am:
Great endorsement that sums up Biss’s brand: progressive and the only one with state legislative experience. With the mess we have I’d like someone who knows their way around the Capitol.
On Seattle, looks pretty clear that we need another study without these flaws before drawing big conclusions.
- Blue dog dem - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 12:04 pm:
Theres that word again. Progressive.
- Shemp - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 12:04 pm:
“If he won’t answer you, I will. Wait for all the tier 1 employees to leave the payroll, or induce them to retire, and pay off the past pension debt. Once everyone is tier 2, and past debt is repaid, pension issues are over. Pretty simple.” Simple? So you want Tier 1 people to retire earlier, plus incent them to retire, so they can start taking out of the system sooner. This, asopposed to seeing them working more years, which means putting more into the fund (which will then also draw interest) instead of taking from the pension fund, and thus also spending fewer years ultimately drawing from the pension fund after they finally retire. Genius. Pure genius.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 12:20 pm:
“Downstate” “black” and “female”
Picking a black running mate from outside Cook County would actually alienate Biss from black pols in the county who could make a fair case that they are both “higher on the ladder” and more qualified to take ascend the governor’s office from the LG spot.
- Dr. Bronners - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 12:26 pm:
Id like to see a tiered minimum wage where businesses pay different minimum wages based on the number of employees in the state. Mom and pops can start off somewhere around 7 and scale it up to multinationals having to pay 15. Just a thought.
- Grand Avenue - Tuesday, Jun 27, 17 @ 4:15 pm:
The problem for State Reps becoming running mates is that they have to give up their seats just to run in the primary where their destiny will be tied to what people think of the Governor candidate, not their own merits.