Summary: <p>There’s an old saying that conservative lawmakers are for local control, except when they’re not.</p><p>Meaning, whenever local units of government want to do something that they don’t like.</p><p>Now, we’ve learned that Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville R- Monroe, believes in democracy, except when he doesn’t.</p><p>In the past, Richardville has staunchly supported Michigan voters’ decisions to outlaw gay marriage and affirmative action.</p><p>But he doesn’t want to allow voters to vote to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.</p><p>It now seems likely that supporters of the higher minimum will collect enough signatures to put a proposition doing so on the November ballot.</p><p>Now, it would be one thing to campaign against this amendment, and encourage people to vote it down.</p><p>That would be perfectly legitimate, regardless of whether you agree.</p><p>But what Richardville wants to do instead is sabotage the referendum, and here’s how:</p><p>When the issue of raising Michigan’s minimum wage from the current $7.40 first came up, another Republican senator suggested raising it by a smaller amount.</p><p>Richardville, a former minor furniture company executive, said flatly he didn’t want to raise it at all. But now he has come up with a bill that would raise it 75 cents an hour. That, in fact, is what State Senator Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, suggested last month.</p><p>But Richardville’s new bill contains a poison pill.</p><p>Instead of amending the old minimum wage law, it would repeal and replace it.</p><p>This would supposedly have the effect of rending the hundreds of thousands of signatures now being collected to put the higher minimum on the ballot null and void.</p><p>Richardville admits openly that this is what he is doing.</p><p>Clearly, he doesn’t think much of the people’s ability to decide.</p><p>He told the Gongwer News Service:</p><blockquote><p>“To put a ballot proposal out without having a public hearing, without talking about it to elected officials, I think could have caused major problems in our economy.”</p></blockquote><p>And he added:</p><blockquote><p>“All we’re doing is taking an issue people say is important and we’re going to deal with it in a reasonable way.”</p></blockquote><p>In other words, Big Brother, or Big Randy, knows best.</p><p>What is particularly hilarious, or contemptible, is that Richardville doesn’t want much of a hearing on his bill either. Instead of referring it to a committee, he is keeping it on the floor.</p><p>The guess is that he will try to wait for an opportune moment, and then shove it through both houses in a few hours, as the Republicans did with right-to-work.</p><p>He may well be able to get away with it.</p><p>Richardville’s political career will likely be over for good in January. He will be term-limited out of the Legislature for life. He lives in Monroe County, in John and Debbie Dingell’s district, so he can forget about going to Congress.</p><p>His future is likely to involve lobbying, or perhaps going back to La-Z-Boy, the lounge chair firm where he used to work. My guess is that some in the business community will be happy if Richardville ends his career by thwarting a vote of the people.</p><p></p><p>But is that the kind of legacy anyone should be proud to leave?</p>
