Minimum Wage Council Session Updates
Your Input Needed Now
On Wednesday, December 7, the Council HHS Committee held a worksession on Bill 12-16, which proposes to increase the minimum wage in the county to $15 by 2020. Councilmembers in attendance included the members of the Health & Human Services Committee: George Leventhal, Roger Berliner, and Craig Rice, as well as Nancy Navarro, Sidney Katz, Tom Hucker, Nancy Floreen, and Marc Elrich.
The active discussion included discussion of the potential impact on nonprofits. See pages 17 and 26-27in the packet. You can watch the hearing on the Council website. Bethesda Beat summarized the meeting here.
While Nonprofit Montgomery shared our survey results with the Council, those results reflected the views of only 22 of our 130 members. In order to ensure that nonprofits can continue to be funded appropriately to maintain current service levels, Councilmembers need to be aware of the potential cost impacts.
We will continue to gather data from you and share it with them as they continue deliberation prior to a vote in early 2017. Because there is limited time to share this information, please respond to the surveyby December 15 if you haven’t already, and also contact Councilmembers directly.
With five co-sponsors, the bill already has majority support on the Council. From the initial survey, the majority of the 22 Nonprofit Montgomery members who responded support the legislation, or support it if mitigation for nonprofits is included. As deliberation on Bill 12-16 proceeds, Nonprofit Montgomery will continue to encourage the Council to pay attention to the impact of the legislation on nonprofit organizations’ bottom lines, and to consider avenues for mitigation.
New County Council President and Vice President
On Tuesday, December 6, the Montgomery County Council elected its new President and Vice President for 2016-2017. Congratulations to incoming Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner and Vice President Hans Riemer.
Both Council President Berliner and Council Vice President Riemer have been enthusiastic supporters of the nonprofit sector, and we look forward to working with them on the many important issues that affect our sector, including procurement and the annual budget process.
We also thank Councilmember Nancy Floreen for her hard work and leadership as Council President this past year. Click here for the full press release and Council President Berliner’s statements.