ABQ Wage Hike Expected to Make Ballot

City Clerk Amy Bailey says the campaign to boost Albuquerque’s minimum wage to $8.50 an hour succeeded in getting enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot.

The proposal will now go to the City Council, which has the option of approving the ordinance or sending it to voters within 90 days. Presumably, that’d be in the Nov. 6 election.

Bailey said her staff verified that at least 12,200 of the petition signatures were valid, and the group needed 12,091. She and her staff have been putting in 10- to 15-hour days to count and verify the signatures.

I’ll have more in tomorrow’s paper, with comment from the Chamber of Commerce, which opposes the idea; Ole New Mexico, which spearheaded the effort; and others. Plus, more on what the proposal actually says.

Here’s my last article on it.