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 If Nothing Else, November's Minimum-Wage Initiative Is Designed To Get Tucsonans Talking About Local Poverty By Dave Devine IN THESE BOOMING economic times, a few people floating in swimming pools and watching the stock market soar on CNBC are getting wealthy from paper profits. Many more Tucsonans, however, are hurting financially. They're working two low-paying jobs, trying to pay the rent and keep clothes on the kids, while driving a beat-up car. When things slow down again, as they will, these folks will be even worse off. So now is the time to start talking--and doing--something about reducing poverty in Tucson. Jeff Imig, one of the organizers of the $7-an-hour minimum-wage initiative on the November ballot, hopes it will prompt a healthy discussion about why such a high percentage of Tucson's children live at or below the federal poverty level.
But don't expect much from the Tucson City Council. Although 18 months ago the Council "reached an apparent consensus that the City Manager schedule a series of study sessions on how to reduce poverty in Tucson," those meetings were never held. Two attempts to hold public hearings on the poverty issue were killed by a majority of the Council. And a proposal that the city require companies receiving taxpayer subsidies to pay higher wages also went nowhere. The Council did review statements in this year's city budget about how various departments are trying to reduce poverty. They're fine-sounding phrases, like: "Striving to improve, stabilize, and uphold the social, structural, and environmental integrity of neighborhoods." Or, "Maintaining affordable mass transit and paratransit systems which provide the public with access to educational and employment centers." Meaningless messages maybe, but at least a vague gesture in the right direction. More telling, however, is the fact that there are no such feel-good phrases in the City Council's section of the budget. Why is the Council, along with so many others in town, afraid even to discuss the poverty issue? "Ninety-nine percent of politicians say they're against poverty," says Imig. "But they actually have to do something about it! Maybe they don't believe in anything but wimpy ordinances. Maybe they're afraid to deal with real issues." Steve Jewett, of Territorial Newspapers, agrees this is an issue meriting discussion. He'll be overseeing a high-powered committee responsible for implementing a community-wide strategic economic plan developed by the Greater Tucson Economic Council (GTEC). One of the group's first tasks will be to look at the extent of the wage-rate problem, discuss what approach should be used in confronting it, and decide who'll be responsible for solving the problem. Jewett hopes the committee, composed of the highest-ranking officials in the public and private sectors, can develop some problem-solving approaches by year's end. Other attempts are also being made to deal with Tucson's poverty crisis: Lame duck City Councilwoman Molly McKasson, with only a few months left in her tenure, intends to propose a three-part package of measures. She intends to put the Council on record as wanting to reduce the poverty level by 10 percent. She's also offering a plan which would provide financial advantages to higher-wage firms doing business with the city. "Somehow people in (elected) office perceive the issue to be bigger than all of us. But it is us," McKasson says. "We let it be out of control. We have the opportunity to change that."
Steve Leal, another member of the Council's voting minority,
says more emphasis must be placed on creating local manufacturing
jobs. He also wants to look at how public incentive funds should
be provided to businesses. Establishing performance criteria to
determine whether the firms receiving public monies--like Microsoft--are
keeping their promises is also on Leal's list. He'll use the City
Council subcommittee he chairs to discuss these issues, he says,
sometime before this fall's election.
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Imig says citizens should be talking about why Tucson has some
of the lowest wages of any community its size west of the Mississippi.
He blames greed and racism for those economic realities, and he
looks forward to discussing them in the upcoming campaign.
