MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Vermont Gov. Phil Scott vetoed a bill that would have increased the state’s minimum wage because he said he felt an artificial increase in wages would end up hurting the low-income people the proposal is designed to help.
In a message sent to lawmakers Monday evening, the Republican governor said raising the minimum wage to $12.55 an hour by 2022 from the current $10.96 could end up decreasing employee hours and increasing the costs of goods and services.
“Despite (the bill’s) good intentions, the reality is there are too many unintended consequences and we cannot grow the economy or make Vermont more affordable by arbitrarily forcing wage increases,” Scott, who has made what he calls affordability the cornerstone of his administration, said in a statement issued with the official veto notice.
The veto was Scott’s 18th since he took office in 2017. None have been overridden by the Legislature.
The veto disappointed lawmakers who passed the scaled-down version of the minimum wage bill after the governor in 2018 vetoed a version that would have gradually increase the wage to $15 an hour.
State Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe, a Democrat and Progressive from Burlington, said the increase was intended to help about 40,000 Vermonters, most of whom are at the low end of the pay scale and who struggle to keep up with their expenses.
“With the governor’s veto he just effectively deleted a $5,000 income gain over the next two years for that group of nearly 40,000 people,” Ashe said Tuesday.
Ashe said the Senate, which passed the bill with a veto-proof vote of 23-6 in the 30-member chamber, would hold an override vote on Thursday.
When the the bill passed the House it was seven votes short of the 100 votes, the two-thirds majority, that would be needed to override the veto.
Separately on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Pattie McCoy, a Republican from Poultney, said Vermont’s current minimum wage law is automatically adjusted for inflation every year.
“Republicans have expressed concerns about yet another increase and its potential to raise the cost of doing business, hike consumer prices, cut employee hours and jobs,” McCoy said.
Last week the House came one vote short of overriding a gubernatorial veto of a bill that would have set up a paid family leave system in Vermont that would have been paid for through a payroll tax.
In a statement, issued after the governor announced his veto, Ashe said the governor’s veto was more than a disagreement between the Legislature and the governor.
“Make no mistake, this is a battle between the governor and the tens of thousands of Vermonters who don’t seem to fit into his hollow affordability slogan,” Ashe said.
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