"Living Wage" Defeated in Broome County
October 4 , 2005
by Dylan Skriloff

Broome County legislators have rejected a proposed "Living Wage" bill due to concerns over its effect on the area’s economy and whether it would help intended beneficiaries. Lawmakers voted 18-1 against the bill. A revised proposal may be reconsidered next year after further research.

Chair of Broome County Legislature, Dan Schofield (R), said the business community in his county, where the city of Binghamton is located, is very concerned over the effects of the bill.

"The vendors that we had in a public hearing last week are screaming that it’s going to cripple them, or put them out of business, or stop them from doing business in Broome County," Schofield said, adding that the bill would hurt the county’s efforts to attract new businesses.

Schofield told Channel 34 news in Binghamton he was concerned that workers who receive higher pay may no longer be eligible for the social programs that keep them afloat, causing them to fall deeper into debt and defeating the entire purpose of the bill in the first place.

Chair of the Broome County Legislature’s Economic Development and Planning Committee, Michael Schafer (R) told the RBA that the legislature held hearings where hospital administrators voiced their concerns over the effects the bill would have on the industry and workers.

"The verdict was the law would be a tremendous detriment both to the taxpayers and those it intended to help," Schafer said.

The costs of the bill were steep for the county with a population of a little over 200,000. It was estimated after surveying 20% of the 59 county contractors that would be affected, that the law would cost the county $1.6 million and cost businesses $7 million a year, he said.

In a deal she made with the Working Families Party, the Broome County Executive Barbara Fiala (D) had set aside $200,000 to implement the proposal, Schafer told the RBA.

"This ended up being a spit in the bucket of what the bill would actually cost," he said. The rationale of the Living Wage movement in Broome County was lacking in logic, according to Schafer.

"The people from the Working Families Party were using bills in Baltimore and other big cities as an example of why we should pass one in Broome County. I told them comparing a small New York county to a major city is comparing apples and oranges," Schafer said.

"They tried to sell us that Westchester County had passed it. I said if I were a worker in Westchester County and Broome County passed a Living Wage bill, I’d move to Broome County because it’s a heck of a lot cheaper to live in Broome County than Westchester," he said.

According to Schafer the attitude of the activists was generally pushy and angry. "They threatened to run candidates against all legislators who opposed the bill. I told them, 'Go ahead,'" he said.

In the end, not even the legislator who introduced the bill, Suzann Buchta (D) voted for it. Only one legislator voted for the bill, and he did so to protest the lack of progress the county had made in addressing their poverty problem. According to Legislative Chair Schofield the bill had appeared on the floor without a sponsor, seemingly out of nowhere. Eventually Buchta sponsored the bill.

Schafer said that Working Family Party activists offered to conduct a study by Binghamton University Professor Thomas Sinclair. What legislators discovered, however, was this study was just going to patch together analyses of a few big cities that had already passed the Living Wage, Legislators wanted to conduct their own study on the impacts the bill would have in Broome County. When the preliminary data was in from the county comptroller’s office it was pretty clear the bill would be devastating to the Broome economy.

"If we passed that bill, we’d all be out of office," Schafer said.

Prior to the bill being rejected, some legislators tried to introduce amendments to hem the bill down, but these amendments were rejected 16-3 because they were meaningless in the big picture, Schafer said.

Schafer spent many years working as a school principle and said the bill reminded him of a teacher’s contract. Every little detail was worked into it, including sick days and vacation. Schafer, who is in his first term as a Broome County legislator, had a word of advice for Rockland County lawmakers and citizens in regard to the Living Wage bill currently being debated in the county.

"Whatever you do, don’t pass it," he said.

RBA Editorial - Lessons form Broome County

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