Tucson Opinion: Tucson's wage initiative creates problems, not solutions

A minimum wage initiative, the “Tucson Fight For 15”, has made its way onto November’s ballot. Driving around Tucson and seeing what our community looks like, nobody can feel good about the crime we are seeing, the homelessness, the crumbling roads and the vacant buildings that were once some of our treasured businesses, forced to close by the economic fallout of the pandemic.

It is clear: Tucson has not been heading in the right direction for years.

To start, this initiative is not statewide, it only applies to the businesses inside the Tucson city limits. Many of our business advocacy groups are voicing urgent concern that this will create inequities between the city and the county, but much more so between Southern Arizona and the rest of the state, country and world, including our next door neighbor Mexico.

This puts our community at a disadvantage to attract new opportunities for workers in Tucson, which would hurt those whom this initiative is intended to help.

Further, this wage initiative does not make the minimum wage $15 until 2025. With the current scheduled increases tied to the CPI in our existing Arizona minimum wage policy, and upward wage pressure due to labor shortages, many businesses are already paying above the level this initiative creates. Market-driven higher wages are better than a mandated wage.

We should take a look at how Tucson is doing economically in relation to the rest of the state and the U.S. As of June, the Arizona posted positive job growth numbers. The downside for Tucson is that 90% of the job growth occurred in Maricopa County.

To get more insight I sought out Dr. George Hammond, Economic and Business Research Director for the University of Arizona. Dr. Hammond shared with me that Tucson’s per capita income is 19.5% below the U.S.

Unfortunately this is not surprising, it is clear when you look at Tucson that we are not thriving. When I asked Dr. Hammond what could be done to create more opportunity for Tucsonans, he responded by referring the “three drivers for long run growth: education attainment, investment in infrastructure, and competitive tax and regulatory policies.”

Arizona is ranked 49th in the country for education and TUSD is ranked 418th out of 640 school districts, those numbers are quite disheartening for our children and future workforce.

Infrastructure in Tucson? I think we all agree, our roads are failing and are a huge issue. Now focus on the driver of competitive tax and regulation; if the “Tucson Fight For 15” makes it harder for existing businesses to operate here because of the onerous regulations put on them, how will we get new businesses to open or choose Tucson over Phoenix or elsewhere to help create opportunities for Tucson?

It is interesting that Mayor Regina Romero is not in the list of endorsements on the Yes campaign website. In fact, the only city council member that is endorsing it is Steve Kozachik. Apparently the Mayor and the majority of the council recognize this as bad policy for Tucson’s future.

I will point out, I find it very ironic that so many school board members are supporting this initiative. I’d prefer they focus on education, clearly that needs to be a priority.

The “Tucson Fight For 15” is a bad bill for Tucson. Now is the time for us to take a hard look at our future. Will there be opportunities for our children? Grandchildren?

Tucson needs to vote no on this proposition because a yes vote will force Tucson deeper into our multigenerational poverty cycle. If we are serious about becoming a successful city, voters must focus on fundamentals: education, roads, and policies which make Tucson a top destination for business investment.