Gov. Wolf's budget proposal boosts minimum wage to cut Medicaid costs

[TexasTowelie]

In Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed state budget, administration officials say increasing the state’s minimum wage to $12 an hour — above the current $7.25 — would shave almost $50 million from public-benefit costs.

The bulk of that potential savings, according to budget estimates, would be from about 100,000 people who would no longer be eligible for Medicaid — a program funded by both the state and federal governments that provides health insurance to poor and disabled individuals.

But some of the potential savings would be canceled out because state-subsidized wages for child care workers and those who care for disabled individuals — fields that in some cases pay below $12 an hour — would increase, according to state estimates.

And while fewer people would be eligible for food stamps under a boost to the minimum wage, the state would realize no savings because the program is federally funded.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/news/state/2017/04/17/minimum-wage-Pennsylvania-budget-Tom-Wolf-budget-proposal-Scott-Wagner-Medicaid/stories/201704170002

[tazkcmo]

1. Of course the hospitality industry opposes this.

"Alex Halper, director of government affairs at the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, argues that low-income families would be better served by programs such as job training, education or a state Earned Income Tax Credit targeted at low-wage working families (such a tax credit exists at the federal, but not state, level)."

Fine Mr. Halper. Let's pay for it with a tax on the businesses that want to pay 1990 wages in 2017.