This morning during Citizen's Input at the Board of County Commission meeting, Jennifer Sullivan requested that a public workshop be scheduled to discuss the Living Wage again. This subject was discussed at length by our commissioners over two years ago during the passing of the ordinance brought forward by Mike McHugh of the Hernando County Business & development Department. This previous discussion revolved around the manufacturing sector and perks for relocations to entice new business to our community. One of the stipulations to receive these perks was a living wage implementation for employees of the business receiving the perks. Commissioner Stabbins commented on Ms. Sullivan's suggestion for a new workshop to discuss the Living Wage saying he thought it would be a good idea for this free exchange of ideas to discuss the difficulty families endure while trying to live on a minimum wage. A public workshop to discuss the working poor, with associated low wages, while trying to find solutions, is always a good idea but some forethought in planning this Living Wage workshop will be necessary to achieve a level playing field. All sides of this issue need to be invited to the table for a discussion of the low wages in our county, starting with the low income workers, to the many businesses in this county. The discussion should be broad to include reasons for low income jobs, such as training and educational opportunities currently available in our county to get an honest evaluation of the current base wages. A good start for gathering information for this workshop would be to review the bill signed by Governor Jeb Bush in 2003 preventing local county governments from implementing a Living Wage over the federally mandated Minimum Wage amount (except in certain circumstances regarding government contracts and employees).
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