Until now, you’d have been hard-pressed to find a body more given to self-destructive legislation than New York’s City Council.
This week, however, the District of Columbia confirmed the existence of legislative life even dumber than in our city. It did so by passing a living-wage bill even after Walmart had made clear the law would be a deal-breaker for as many as six stores it hoped to open in the district.
Here in New York, of course, our politicians have uttered their own idiocies to justify depriving New Yorkers of the increased jobs and shopping choices Walmart would bring. But even our pols didn’t do what DC did.
When Walmart lost out on opening its first store in New York City in September, it was because a developer decided to go with Shop-Rite. In DC, however, it happened because politicians passed legislation designed to keep Walmart out. They did so by mandating a starting wage of $12.50 an hour for any employee of a retailer with corporate sales of $1 billion or more and stores of 75,000 square feet. Oh, yes: Retailers that have been unionized are exempt.
And then they spiked the ball in the end zone. “We’re at a point where we don’t need retailers,” gloated Democratic Councilman Vincent Orange. “They need us.”
Mayor Vincent Gray has a chance to stop the madness by vetoing this bad bill. If not, we sure hope Washingtonians remember those names — Orange and Gray — next time they’re out looking for work or paying twice what they should for a gallon of milk.