RICHMOND -- The House of Delegates used a parliamentary maneuver Tuesday to kill a proposed increase in the minimum wage, ending a debate in which tactics generated more heated arguments than the legislation itself.
Over the objections of Democrats, the Republican-controlled House avoided a vote on Senate Bill 1327 by sending it to the House Appropriations Committee. Because the deadline for committee action has passed, the House action killed the legislation for this year.
"I'm very disappointed," said the bill's sponsor, Sen. Charles Colgan, D-Manassas. "I thought it was a very good bill. It's long overdue."
Colgan's bill would have increased the minimum wage in Virginia from $5.15 to $6.50 per hour on July 1. The Virginia bill would become obsolete if the federal minimum wage increases to $6.50 per hour or greater. Both houses of Congress have passed bills to gradually increase the federal minimum wage to $7.25 per hour, but differences between the bills have not been reconciled.
Colgan's bill won bipartisan support in the state Senate, despite opposition from business groups. Similar House-sponsored measures were blocked by the House Commerce and Labor Committee last month. But House Democrats gained enough GOP support in the committee last week to get Colgan's bill to the House floor, where it was sidetracked Tuesday.
House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, asked delegates to send the bill to the Appropriations Committee because the wage increase would cost the state an estimated $5 million, including $3 million from the general fund. The House typically requires the budget-writing committee to sign off on legislation that has a fiscal effect.
Gov. Tim Kaine proposed setting aside $2 million as a contingency in case Congress or the General Assembly approved a minimum wage increase. The Senate kept that funding in its budget proposal; the House eliminated it.
The House voted 53-43 to send Colgan's bill back to committee. Only three Republicans, including Appropriations Committee Chairman Vince Callahan, R-Fairfax County, voted against Griffith's motion.
Griffith suggested that politics rather than policy inspired Colgan's bill and complained that House Democrats forced a quick vote on the bill in committee to avoid debate.
"To have it come up in this house this year is merely for political purposes, or a belief that the majority party at the federal level can't get the job done," Griffith said.
Del. Brian Moran, D-Alexandria, accused House GOP leaders of choosing "to stand against working families." Moran, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, had his own minimum wage legislation killed earlier in the session.
"This shortsighted decision shortchanges Virginia's families by making them work harder for less and less every year," Moran said.
Staff writer Mason Adams contributed to this report.
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