Gov. Bruce Rauner faced Democratic laughter during minimum wage increase proposal [View all]
When Gov. Bruce Rauner suggested in his State of the State Address raising the minimum wage to $10 over seven years, Democrats in the audience laughed loudly. Is this a harbinger of Springfield gridlock to come? "When people are laughing at you... they don't care what you think and they're most definitely not listening," writes Rich Miller of Capitol Fax:
I don't believe I've ever seen a governor openly and loudly laughed at on the House floor. At least not while he was present...
Legislators erupted in loud applause when the governor proposed raising the minimum wage to $10 an hour. But when Rauner added "over seven years," their laughter was even louder, and longer. Democrats appeared to realize that they might've fallen for a bait and switch, and it was mostly downhill from that point on...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-dietrich/gov-bruce-rauner-faced-de_b_6645890.html
The day after that showing of disapproval with the governor's minimum wage plan, the Democrat-controlled Senate passed a minimum wage increase bill which would raise the state's minimum wage to $9 by the middle of the year and $11 over four years.
Though this plan is faster than Rauner's suggestion, it is still not as fast as voters indicated they wanted to see in November.
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