Page 26 - Flathead Beacon // 1.27.16

LIKE I WAS SAYING 28 AMERICAN RURAL 28 DRAWING BOARD 29 Viewpoints
LETTERS
Raise the Minimum Wage
As a candidate for House District 5, White sh, I am in support of increas- ing the minimum wage to the level of $11/hour subsequent to the next legis- lative session, one year from now. What is an appropriate minimum wage for a westernized and economic powerhouse like the United Sates? In comparing 10 highly developed peer nations with established minimum wages ranging from a low of $5.76 in Spain to $15.58 in Australia, the median sum with in ation built in for 2016 equated to $11/hour. Some nations such as Den- mark, Finland and until recently Ger- many paid varied amounts based upon occupational sector wide agreements between employers and trade unions, establishing industry wide standards (Finland and Denmark currently yield about $18/hour and were not included in the 10-nation survey). In 2014 the Ger- man Bundestag adopted a national min- imum wage at $11.28/hour.
In a recent study from the Univer- sity of Chicago, 42 of the nation’s most prominent economists were polled on whether increasing the minimum wage to a phased in $15/hour would reduce employment of low wage workers. The study reveals that many of the partic- ipants in the survey are uncertain (38 percent) of the results followed by a slim margin agreeing with the demise of employment by a 26 percent to 24 per- cent margin.
I’ll place my con dence and subse- quent bias with the German decision to endorse the minimum wage. This vibrant economy has been a global jug- gernaut. Here in the Flathead Valley, many hard working people struggle to pay bills and make ends meet. While conservatives point to an increase in the Earned Income Credit as the alter- native to an increased minimum wage, I believe both an increase in the credit and a more substantial minimum wage will boost incomes of those most in need. Hard working people like CNAs who watch over our senior citizens, non- tipped fast food workers and box store workers, need that boost.
In the 2015 session two minimum wage bills were contemplated. House Bill 386, by Representative Mary Ann Dunwell, D-Helena, failed in commit- tee. An attempt to blast the bill out of committee failed on a partisan vote of 59-41. The issue of the minimum wage clearly separates Republicans and Dem- ocrats with the former showing no incli- nation to raise the wage.
The lowest minimum wage in the
world? This appears to belong to Ban- gladesh at 9 cents/hour. Let’s vote in people willing to boost the wages of our most vulnerable members of the work force.
Dave Fern, Democrat Candidate, House District 5, White sh
NorthWestern Energy’s Unrealistic Scorched Earth ‘Study’
Shame on Northwestern Energy and its band of merry men for orches- trating the largest misinformation PR campaign since Montanans were hood- winked into deregulating the electric system. The most recent e ort was orchestrated by some of the same char- acters involved in deregulation. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.
Recently, NorthWestern Energy released a “report” on the economic impact of the rule that requires Mon- tana to reduce carbon pollution. North- Western directed the controversial Bureau of Business and Economic Research (housed at the University of Montana) and apparently some of Mon- tana’s elected leaders to conspire to say that reducing carbon pollution would be catastrophic for Montana. NorthWest- ern only allowed its study to consider the most expensive option available to Montana to reduce carbon pollution. This inevitably resulted in the scariest, most dire, and unrealistic economic impact possible. Fortunately, that’s not the case.
By no means is NorthWestern’s report a credible, independent analysis. NorthWestern certainly knows how to produce realistic and credible reports. This time it chose not to. Instead North- Western Energy paid for a report that had to use wildly unrealistic assump- tions. Why would anyone choose the most expensive way to comply with any regulation? No rational person would. But NorthWestern did just that.
Montanans cannot a ord a major utility wasting money on shoddy nan- cial analyses and overblown scare tac- tics. That’s not productive and does a grave disservice to what should be a very serious discussion about realis- tic ways to bene t Montana’s economy and reduce carbon pollution. We can have both, but apparently NorthWest- ern isn’t interested. Montanans fell vic- tim to equally bad advice for its largest utility not that long ago. That self-serv- ing guidance resulted in devastation for many and saddled Montana’s with some of the highest power costs in the region.
The results of NorthWestern’s anal- ysis aren’t worth the paper they’re
printed on. They certainly shouldn’t serve as the basis for any public pol- icy. The awed study has already been reviewed by independent economist Tom Power, former head of the Univer- sity of Montana’s Economics Depart- ment, who gave it an “F” for intellec- tual honesty. He said the entirety of it was based solely on NorthWestern’s own unrealistic assumptions about the impacts of the Clean Power Plan on Montana.
Other utility providers own about 90 percent of the Colstrip generating plant and the transmission system. None of them are making the hysterical claims that NorthWestern Energy is, let alone actively spreading misinformation to customers.
NorthWestern’s behavior is intended to be destructive. Montanans need to have a constructive conversation about how to best secure our energy future, grow our economy, and minimize the very real impacts of climate change on agriculture, water resources, our out- door economy, and public health. For- tunately it’s up to the state of Montana, not Northwestern Energy, to develop a Montana plan to protect our jobs, create new ones, and clean our air.
It would be helpful if NorthWest- ern would abandon its scorched earth legal and public relations strategy and commit to working to move Montana forward. The Clean Power Plan allows states the exibility to design their own unique energy plans that can be tailored to each states’ unique circumstance. Instead of choosing the most expen- sive path forward, Montana has the opportunity to design a state plan that will maximize the bene ts to the econ- omy, create jobs, and minimize electric bills. I am con dent Montanans are far smarter than NorthWestern gives us credit.
Gov. Steve Bullock recently estab- lished the Montana Clean Power Plan Advisory Council to bring Montan- ans together to gather information and make recommendations for the State of Montana to comply with the Clean Power Plan. We have three years to come up with a carbon pollution reduc- tion plan for Montana. We have 15 years to fully implement it.
If Montana doesn’t implement the Clean Power Plan the Montana way, then the federal government will write this for us. I think we can all agree that Montanans should write Montana’s plan to bene t Montana.
Anne Hedges, Deputy Director Montana Environmental Information Center
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JANUARY 27, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
LETTERS
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