Jacob Ogles
Florida For A Fair Wage, the organization behind a ballot initiative to raise Florida’s minimum wage, raised $3,504 in March. All of that came in small donations to the political committee
The Florida Supreme Court has already cleared the citizen-driven constitutional amendment to appear on the 2020 ballot. But it will still need to be approved by more than 60% of voters.
If passed, the measure would require Florida’s minimum wage, now $8.56 an hour, to go to $10 an hour by the end of September 2021, and then go up $1 year until reaching $15 an hour.
The proposal has drawn the ire of business organizations, who can be expected to spend mightily to save on paychecks.
A statewide campaign will cost plenty to pass the measure.
For March, the committee, true to its people-power spirit, reported 259 small contributions, the largest a $200 donation from Naples resident Paulette Kempfer.
A total of 34 donations came in for $8.56, representative of the current minimum wage.
There were 103 donations written for $15, the aspirational hourly rate should the measure pass and be fully realized.
Florida For A Fair Wage since its formation in October 2017 has raised more than $4.9 million, but the petition campaign and legal defense of the amendment have been costly. The committee wrapped up March with just $75,437 in cash on hand.
That’s after spending $32,295 in March alone, including $20,000 with political consulting firm Converge GPS and $10,600 with Washington marketing firm Anne Lewis Strategies.
The vast majority of the group’s financial support has come from companies affiliated with Orlando attorney John Morgan.
The Morgan Firm has donated almost $4.2 million, while Morgan & Morgan donated $478,159.
The Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund has donated $265,978.
One comment
NoTimeForThis
April 20, 2020 at 4:01 pm
Initiatives, like this one, should never be judged through the eyes of this virus, but should be rejected at this time, until things get back to normal.
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