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House OKs minimum wage hike; Senate sends funeral protest bill to governor Thursday, Apr 6, 2006 By Rob Moritz and Doug Thompson Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - Legislation to increase the state's minimum wage easily passed the House on Wednesday, virtually assuring that thousands of Arkansas workers will get a $1.10 an hour raise this fall. House Bill 1033 by Rep. Benny Petrus, D-Stuttgart, passed on a 92-2 vote and now goes to the Senate, which passed an identical bill Tuesday. Business and labor groups and Gov. Mike Huckabee all support the measure, which would increase the state minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.25 an hour, effective Oct. 1. Also Wednesday, the third day of a special session focusing primarily on public education, the House approved legislation that would enhance sentences for sex offenders convicted of raping children, while the Senate passed and sent to the governor a bill to restrict protests at funerals. The legislative effort to raise Arkansas' minimum wage is a compromise alternative to a push to raise the rate by constitutional amendment. In addition to the $1.10 hourly increase, the proposed ballot initiative would perpetuate annual cost-of-living increases. Supporters of the proposed constitutional amendment have said they would abandon a drive to put the measure on the Nov. 7 general election ballot if the Legislature approves a statutory increase and the governor signs it into law. Petrus told House colleagues that a statutory increase was the more responsible way to raise the minimum wage. "This is the place and now is the time," he said. Supporters say more than 127,000 Arkansans work minimum wage jobs and that about 80 percent of them are 12 or older. The bill also would require that employees who work for tips be paid at least $2.63 an hour. Currently, larger employers pay $3.13 an hour and smaller businesses pay $2.58 an hour to restaurant servers and other workers who rely on tips from customers. The House also passed, 99-4, support HB 1004 by Rep. Dawn Creekmore, D-Hensley. The bill would set a minimum 25-year prison sentence for individuals convicted of raping a child 13-years-old or younger. Under the measure, a person previously convicted of the most serious violent crimes - including rape or first-degree sexual assault - and who is convicted of rape of a victim 13 or younger would draw a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. "A vote for this bill is a vote for all of the children in Arkansas who have either been raped or who may be raped," Creekmore told House colleagues. "It is also to say to those sex offenders who prefer our most precious asset as their victims that there will be a consequence." The Senate also passed a bill that increased the reporting requirements for sexual offenders. HB 1005, also by Creekmore, would require monitoring of serious sexual offenders with the Global Positioning System, among other requirements such as more frequent checking-in with local law enforcement agencies. The bill passed the Senate 34-0. The bill goes back to the House with Senate amendments. House Bill 1006 by Jeff Wood, D-Sherwood, passed the Senate 33-0 and goes to the governor's desk. It would require protesters to stay at least 150 feet from the site of a funeral. No protest could take place during funeral services or within 30 minutes before or after the service. The bill would create a new misdemeanor offense, punishable by 30 days in jail or a fine of up to $100 fine. Wood said he proposed the measure because a church group had protested in other states at the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq. The group claimed at the protests that the United States was being punished for tolerating homosexuals. The Senate also passed, 34-0, legislation that would appropriating $6 million to state agencies who have yet to be compensated by the federal government for disaster assistance in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The state expects to recoup the money from the federal government, Joint Budget chairman David Bisbee, R-Rogers, told the chamber. The money would go from general revenues to the Department of Finance and Administration to help restore state disaster funds. The bill goes to the House. |
