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Labor Hires Signature Gatherers Group Scrambles To Get Minimum Wage On Ballot

Associated Press

With less than a month for organized labor to qualify its minimum wage initiative for the November ballot, leaders say they will use paid signature gatherers in an effort to meet the deadline.

Initiatives need 41,335 signatures from registered voters by July 5 to qualify for the ballot.

A number of initiatives have been proposed or launched. So far, only the One Percent Initiative, seeking to limit property taxes to 1 percent of taxable property value, has made it.

The AFL-CIO, working with Idaho Democrats, is forming a political action committee to hire signature gatherers.

President Randy Ambuehl said even though the AFL-CIO has 35,000 members or affiliates in Idaho, a volunteer effort wasn’t going to get the initiative on the ballot. Labor had no choice but to hire signature gatherers, he said.

“It’s just a matter of getting the people out in the field who have time to do it,” Ambuehl said.

The going rate in some drives has been up to $2 for each valid signature turned in. Ambuehl said as of Tuesday, he had only 30 percent of the needed signatures.

The initiative seeks to raise Idaho’s minimum wage of $4.25 per hour by 50 cents per hour over a four-year period to $6.25 per hour.

Coeur d’Alene tax activist Ron Rankin got his One Percent Initiative on the ballot by hiring paid signature gatherers.

It’s also a matter of organization, said Rankin, who has gotten his One Percent Initiative on the ballot three times. Other initiatives backers seem to have either organized too late or procrastinated too long.

“The volunteers get tired,” said Rankin, who spent more than 18 months planning and organizing to get his initiative before voters. “That’s why it takes as long as it does to get signatures.”

Other initiatives cover such issues as black bear hunting, gay rights and nuclear waste.

The Idaho Citizens Alliance is trying to get its anti-gay rights initiative on the ballot. The alliance last week dropped three other initiatives to focus on the gay rights initiative, and the group concedes it is behind pace to get on the ballot.