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Increase the minimum wage

5/11/2016

 

The Polk County Supervisors voted in April to appoint a task force to study increasing the minimum wage countywide. The current minimum wage in Iowa is $7.25 for hourly workers and $4.35 for tipped workers. The vote was 4-1 in favor with Democrats John Mauro, Angela Connolly, Tom Hockensmith and Republican Bob Brownell. The fifth Supervisor on the board, Republican Steve Van Oort, voted “no” saying the government had no business in raising the wage. Supervisor John Mauro said, “Something has to change in order for the working people to survive. It’s time.” Polling shows the public is in agreement with Mauro. The latest Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows that 69 percent of the public supports an increase.  It’s estimated that there are 55,000 Polk County residents struggling every day to get enough to eat. They simply don’t earn enough to adequately feed their families. It’s estimated that one in five children and one in eight adults are suffering from a hunger crisis in Polk County. The Democrats recognized there is a food emergency for many families and decided the best long-term option is to raise the minimum wage. Thank you Polk County Democrats for leading on this issue.

Rick Smith

Urbandale

 

CNA - Stop HIV Iowa

What conflict?

After reading the original story on the resignation of a member of the Iowa Board of Regents and her disclosure of a possible conflict of interest, I was left wondering, “What was the conflict of interest?” I was not able to find that answer, even after re-reading the story numerous times. Thanks to Civic Skinny (May 5) for the showing us the 47,467 (shares of stock in Herman Miller owned by the regent) possible reasons for the conflict of interest concern.

Mike Rowley

Clive

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