AG Leslie Rutledge rejects proposed ballot initiative to increase minimum wage to $11

Attorney General Leslie Rutledge (R) today rejected a proposed ballot initiative from David Couch to raise the minimum wage again, this time to $11. Voters previously raised the state's minimum wage via a ballot initiative in 2014, bumping it from $6.25 to $8.50

As readers of this blog have grown accustomed to, a protracted back-and-forth to win approval form the attorney general for ballot measures has been typical. This particular rejection, however, is outrageous: The language in the proposed ballot initiative is identical to the language in the previous minimum wage initiative, which was not only approved by the previous attorney general, but ratified overwhelmingly by voters!

Couch, a Little Rock attorney who has worked on a number of successful ballot initiatives, said he was shocked by Rutledge's opinion. "She rejected the same ballot title that was approved last time," said Couch, who worked on that campaign. "It was approved by 66 percent of the voters in 2014."

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To proceed, the ballot measure first needs to be certified by the attorney general. At that point, the amendment would need to collect around 85,000 signatures of registered voters by July to make it on the ballot in November.

Thus far this year, Rutledge has rejected more than 50 proposed ballot titles and not accepted a single one.

Read more: https://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2018/04/26/rutledge-rejects-proposed-ballot-initiative-to-increase-minimum-wage-to-11