Latest news with #Santucci
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
R.I. General Assembly backs hourly minimum wage hike to $16 in 2026, then $17 in 2027
Both chambers of the Rhode Island General Assembly approved increasing the state's minimum wage by a dollar a year through 2027, voting mostly along party lines. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current) The parade of annual increases in Rhode Island's hourly minimum wage is poised to march on for two more years under companion bills approved by the Rhode Island General Assembly Tuesday. The legislation sponsored by Democratic Rep. David Bennett, of Warwick, and Sen. John Burke, of West Warwick, increase the existing, $15 hourly minimum wage to $16 starting Jan. 1, 2026, rising to $17 on Jan. 1, 2027. Both chambers approved the wage hike in separate votes divided mostly along party lines — 55-10 in the House, and 33-4 in the Senate. All four Senate Republicans voted against the bill while nine of 10 House Republicans opposed it; the final House Republican, Rep. Robert Quattrocchi, of Scituate, was absent. Democratic Rep. Jacquelyn Baginski of Cranston also voted against the wage increase. Each chamber must rubber stamp the other's bill under a process known as concurrence before the proposal can be signed into law. Gov. Dan McKee's office did not immediately return inquiries for comment Thursday. Originally, an annual $1-per-year increase in base pay would have continued through the end of the decade, culminating in $20-an-hour in 2030. But backlash from business groups and economic uncertainty led to what Rep. Arthur Corvese, a North Providence Democrat and chair of the House Committee on Labor, termed a 'more measured approach' — only prescribing annual wage hikes for the next two years rather than five. 'I would urge my colleagues to vote for this very common sense, measured response regarding increasing the minimum wage,' Corvese said. His plea did not persuade Republican lawmakers, who echoed business owners concerns' that higher wages would cut into small business bottom lines, and, potentially, force layoffs. 'The real minimum wage is $0,' said House Minority Whip David Place, a Burrillville Republican. 'That's what they make when they get fired because business can't afford to keep them.' Consumers could suffer, too, warned Rep. Paul Santucci, a Smithfield Republican. Santucci took an informal survey of owners of four local restaurants, a farm, a nursing home and a repair shop. All told him they would likely have to raise their prices if base wages increase, Santucci said Thursday. 'For small business owners, policies that continually increase labor costs will force them to make difficult decisions,' the Rhode Island Business Coalition wrote in a March 5 letter to lawmakers. 'They may be forced to cut jobs and/or reduce their employees' hours, if they are not forced to close entirely. Rising labor costs may also increase the speed at which employers decide to invest in technology to replace lower-wage workers. This means fewer jobs for Rhode Island workers, and ultimately undermines the progress our economy needs to make.' The coalition in its letter also pointed out that Rhode Island already has the seventh highest hourly minimum wage in the country — accompanied by Massachusetts — having hiked the base pay for hourly workers in eight of the last nine years. Sen. Leonidas Raptakis framed Rhode Island's high ranking as a benefit, rather than a detriment, noting that the Ocean State's hourly base pay ranked 14th in 2013, before lawmakers began a series of regular minimum wage hikes. 'If we do this today, we're going to be number 6, then maybe in 2017, we'll be number 5,' said Raptakis, a Coventry Democrat and former small business owner. Raptakis unsuccessfully proposed two amendments on the Senate floor Thursday: one to raise the minimum wage to $17 immediately, with subsequent increases based upon the consumer price index, and a second to create a legislative study panel on the topic. Both amendments failed. Earlier in the session, progressive Democratic Rep. Enrique Sanchez also suggested an alternative, proposing a $22 hourly minimum starting Jan. 1, which failed to gain enough traction to advance out of committee. Addressing colleagues Thursday, Sanchez backed the less-severe $1 boost to hourly wages as 'good progress.' 'This is common sense legislation,' Sanchez said. 'The reality is that inflation is still high, and we need to make sure our Rhode Islanders are getting paid sufficient wages in order to maintain their lifestyles and support their families at home.' Majority Whip Katherine Kazarian, an East Providence Democrat, also noted that business owners routinely implore lawmakers to make policies that are predictable and standardized. 'This does exactly that,' Kazarian said. Union groups, medical professionals and advocates for child and family wellbeing previously expressed support for raising the state's minimum wage, which they said would boost purchasing power, reduce poverty and lead to better health outcomes. Lawmakers last updated the state's minimum wage rate in 2021, approving a set of annual increases that increased hourly rates by $3.50 over a four-year period. Separate proposals to increase the tipped minimum wage for servers and other hospitality workers — either a one-year bump to $6.75 an hour or gradually to reach $15 hourly by 2031 — remained held for review in committee in each chamber as of Thursday afternoon. Rhode Island has not updated its $3.89 hourly minimum wage for workers who receive tips since 2017. 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Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Ohio lawmakers pitch new manufacturing improvement grants
Crew members perform an inspection at one of First Solar's Ohio manufacturing plants. (Photo courtesy of First Solar.) Two Ohio state lawmakers want to earmark $24 million over the next two years to help manufacturers make upgrades. State Reps. Nick Santucci, R-Niles, and Steve Demetriou, R-Bainbridge Twp., argue manufacturing is a leading industry in the state but small and midsize companies have trouble securing funding for improvements. 'It's essential that we protect our legacy manufacturing companies to support the continued success of manufacturing here in Ohio,' Santucci said when they introduced the bill earlier this month. Grants themselves are capped at $150,000 and the pool of available funding would be split evenly between companies with 50 employees or fewer and those with 51-500. 'These grants,' Santucci added, 'will provide essential support to manufacturers by enabling them to automate repetitive tasks and upskill employees so they can adapt to evolving demands and circumstances including workforce shortages.' He and Demetriou point to similar programs in Iowa and Indiana that have been running for years. But they're walking a fine line convincing their fellow lawmakers. Despite longstanding economic development efforts like JobsOhio and the state Department of Development, there's an air of 'picking winners and losers' to the proposal. That runs counter to many Republicans' free-market inclinations, and some members worried about blowback if grant recipients crash and burn. At the same time, Democrats' ears prick up at that 'automate repetitive tasks' argument. They don't want to pay for business improvements that push existing staffers out of the job. In a lot of ways, what Santucci and Demetriou are suggesting fits neatly with existing state programs. Handing the Ohio Department of Development an extra $12 million a year with specific requirements for how to target and administer that funding isn't exactly reinventing the wheel. Demetriou cast the program as a supplement to economic development programs aimed at attracting businesses to the state. 'We have a great opportunity to create an environment to organically grow businesses that have already called Ohio home,' he argued. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Even if the funding is a grant, he added, recipient companies have to match the state's investment dollar-for-dollar. 'In addition to that, the bill stipulates that the business would have to return any unmatched dollars that they received from the state,' Demetriou said. 'So, they get $150 grand, and they only invest $75 grand of their money, then they're returning $75 grand back to the state.' Still, lawmakers have a lot of questions about the idea. And to be fair, not all of them are skeptical. State Rep. Heidi Workman, R-Rootstown, suggested the grants might not be big enough. In some industries, she said, that $150,000 grant might only cover a single piece of equipment. State Rep. Ismail Mohamed, D-Columbus, praised the sponsors intent, but said he's looking for 'a balance' between supporting new technology and protecting employees. The sponsors' answers were likely unsatisfying. Santucci chalked up potential job losses to 'creative destruction.' 'There's a creation of new technology,' he said. 'Those (old) jobs go away, there's new jobs that get created because of that technology advancement, and so this is something that Ohio has to embrace. We have to move forward.' That's obviously cold comfort for the workers whose jobs disappear, but Demetriou was quick to note Indiana's program has seen a modest net increase in employment per grant. Eric Jenkusky, the CEO of T.J. Clark International, testified alongside Jeff Spain who works with a workforce training program at Columbus State. Both are big supporters of the bill. Jenkusky explained his company has just 16 employees but it has contracts with the U.S. Defense Department for fuel and water pump systems. 'For our company in particular,' he explained, '(the Manufacturing Technologies Assistance Program) would allow us to enhance our manufacturing with modern CNC plasma metal cutting and rapid metallic 3D printing prototyping capabilities.' Committee chairman, Rep. Thad Claggett, R-Licking County, pressed them about how lawmakers can protect taxpayer dollars. 'How do we how do we have winners — far more winners — than technology grants that did not work?' he asked. Spain argued the program would be in good hands with the Department of Development. Claggett pressed further on whether he'd support a claw back feature. Spain said he would. Gov. DeWine lands biggest jobs deal in Ohio history with defense company Anduril's new plant State Rep. Ron Ferguson, R-Wintersville, argued a dollar spent on grants is a dollar that can't go to tax cuts. 'What do you think the value is, of say, cutting your tax liability versus giving a grant?' he asked. State Rep. Riordan McClain, R-Upper Sandusky, asked what about regulatory changes? 'Rather than a grant program that spends money, just kind of picks companies to invest in,' he said, 'I want to know if we can do it from a from a regulatory perspective.' Jenkusky brushed off both suggestions. He wouldn't turn down a tax cut, but reducing overhead 'would take much longer for us to be able to realize any benefits.' And he said for companies his size, the biggest challenge is access to capital — not navigating regulations. 'I'm probably going to get myself in trouble for saying this,' he said, 'but even with JobsOhio, if you look, it's not guys like me that's in that program. It's always the Andurils and the Intels. It's never the TJ Clarks.' In a statement, JobsOhio spokesman Matt Englehart said the organization doesn't comment on pending legislation, but argued it's got a strong track record of supporting small and medium sized businesses. As a handful of examples, he pointed to funding for Mansfield's Ohio Valley Stamping, Milo's Whole World Gourmet in Athens County, and Warren machining company Buckeye Precision Threads. 'More than 80 percent of all JobsOhio projects are with small and medium-sized enterprises,' Englehart said. But importantly, JobsOhio defines that as any business with $1 billion or less in revenue. Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Nick Evans on X or on Bluesky. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Smyrna town manager helps create legislation to change state funding distribution
SMYRNA, Tenn. (WKRN) — Smyrna is one of the fastest growing localities in Middle Tennessee. With more people calling the town home, the amount of tax dollars generated grows. For years, Smyrna has had to rely on a special census to help determine their population on non-census years. Thanks in part to Smyrna Town Manager David Santucci, a bill to use population estimates sits on Gov. Bill Lee's desk, awaiting his signature. 'This will help us instead of having to do a special census and paying sometimes tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars in order to try to count every individual in your community,' Santucci told News 2. Rutherford County bus drivers 'compelled to cease' driving May 1 if school board doesn't return to negotiating table Santucci shared his idea of using population estimates with state Rep. Robert Stevens (R) and state Sen. Shane Reeves (R). Essentially, they'd use population estimates in the years between the federal census to help decide funding amounts. Using Smyrna as an example, the U.S. Census listed the town as having a population of 40,589 in 2010. In 2020, the population reached 53,185. In between those years, a special census offered an account that wasn't necessarily accurate, meaning Smyrna missed out on thousands of dollars. 'We were showing a population of 53,000, and we believe we're somewhere in the range of 58,000 to 60,000, so we're probably leaving somewhere about $750,000 a year on the table, and you calculate that over a 10-year period and you're talking about millions of dollars,' Santucci explained. Tennessee lawmakers pass nearly 600 bills this legislative session That state money is used for many essential services that will help Smyrna and other municipalities keep up with growth. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lattes with Representative Nick Santucci in Warren
WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) — Friday morning, people were able to visit with Ohio Representative Nick Santucci during a 'Lattes and with Legislators' event in Warren. The Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber welcomed people at the Warren Library for Friday's event. Santucci talked about current work being down in the statehouse, and people were able to ask direct questions or concerns they think he should address. The next Lattes with Legislators event is April 25 with State Representative Monica Robb Blasdel at Sabi's in Columbiana. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
