By SEN. MIKE SHOWER

What is Ballot Measure 1? Every two years or so it seems Alaska is at the mercy of another group of Lower 48 billionaires and left-wing groups pushing another left-wing initiative. 

Remember these gems? Automatic voter registration when filing for your PFD. The soft on crime law via SB-91. Ranked-choice voting. All were pushed by Outside dark money.

Now we have the infamous “minimum wage increase.” All of this brought to us courtesy of Lower 48 entities who love to use Alaska as the cheap date. They can spend very little money here and pass left-of-center legislation that would be prohibitively costly in bigger states. They then use us as the shining “example” to push this legislation elsewhere. 

But wait! There’s more. Ballot Measure 1 is not just a minimum wage increase.

Ballot Measure 1 has three separate areas. Let’s start off with violating the single subject rule for an initiative. Alaska statute 15.45.050 mandates an initiative must have one subject. Those who paid attention to the ranked choice voting initiative four years ago may remember how that also violated the rule with far more than one subject, but the courts let it slide. So far no one has challenged Ballot Measure 1 in court and, frankly, it’s probably too late. Alaskans simply don’t have the money or time to fight off the vast sums of dark money being spent in Alaska for these initiatives. The same dark money that did not go away as promised when they passed the ranked-choice voting scheme.

Ballot Measure 1 starts off with the carrot to get Alaskans to bite. Increase the minimum wage. it sounds great! Here are a few things they’re not telling you.

First, small businesses will be hurt by this. Many of them operate on a razor-thin margin. With government mandating what they must pay they may have to cut workers’ hours, raise the price of their products, or in some cases both. If they can’t, they may be forced out of business. There is a price point consumers are willing to pay for certain things, go beyond it, they stop buying. 

Bigger businesses are already paying higher wages and from a corporate perspective they have the resources to do so. Many small businesses do not. And let’s not forget how union wages are tied into this scheme. They’ll benefit too so of course they support it. More union pay equals more union dues equals more political power for union bosses. 

Second, it requires businesses of 15 or more employees to provide 56 hours of sick leave a year and, if less than 15 employees, then 40 hours a year.

Once again, that sounds terrific right? It does until you consider the impact, as with pay increases, on small businesses. Big companies already provide this type of benefit. And just like providing higher pay, they have the resources to do this without a significant negative impact on their businesses or ability to survive. Many small businesses today are quite literally on the edge of survival from month to month. Require them to provide paid time off on top of higher pay? It’s quite possible this is a death knell for many a small business owner. 

Or take the example which happened to my mom who workred for a major corporation. The government mandated increased wages some years ago in her state. They paid the higher wages sure, then cut her and many other employee’s hours from 40 to 25 so they didn’t have to provide any benefits. In reality her overall pay went down, not up. 

You see, it’s never as simple or grand as those pushing these ideas want you to believe. There are almost always downstream consequences and, more often than not, it’s the small business, their employees and the consumer who take the hit in one form or another.

Remember, you will pay more as a consumer to make up for the higher costs to businesses to survive. Don’t forget to open your own wallet if you vote yes on Ballot Measure 1.

Finally, let’s get to the third part. Have you heard of the Colorado baker who’s been hounded and sued nearly into oblivion for refusing to make a cake for a LGBT activist couple? It went against his religious beliefs. Apparently, religious conviction is no longer good enough to protect you from being forced into labor. I want you to think very carefully about the very “reasonable” sounding section about no political or religious meetings being required and the consequences levied on businesses. 

This is a poison pill plain and simple. The proponents will downplay this section and laugh off such discussion.

Friends, the left doesn’t do anything without a plan. Somewhere in the legal realm they have inserted this to be used at a later date to file a lawfare complaint against some faith-based business or business owner. This is happening all over the country. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the actual reason for the initiation of this bill is to enact this language for use when they are ready. In a similar manner, like using dark money to scare Alaskans into voting for the terrible ranked-choice voting scheme, they are pulling on your emotions using a minimum wage increase as top cover.

Be careful what you vote for, Alaska. Ballot Measure 1 is not a simple minimum wage increase. And it will have harmful impacts on many Alaska businesses and therefore Alaskans employed by those businesses. Worse still, something more sinister is embedded in the language because that’s just how these left-wing organizations operate. 

Had they simply increased the minimum wage I would have still opposed based on wanting the let the business environment drive the economics instead of Soviet Union-style central planning. They went well past that red line on this one. I will be a hard NO on Ballot Measure 1.

Sen. Mike Shower represents Wasilla, District O, in the Alaska Legislature.