Quinn still wants to pass $10-an-hour minimum wage

Ka-ching! Gov. Pat Quinn is gobsmacked. Why not?

Sneed hears that powerful Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan’s decision Wednesday not to call the state’s minimum wage bill during this week’s veto session — which Quinn wanted big-time — was intended to do Mayor Rahm Emanuel a favor.

◆ Translation: “Gov. Quinn wanted the state minimum wage hike passed before he leaves office — but Madigan, instead, tossed a sop to Rahm in order not to steal Rahm’s re-election thunder,” a top Sneed source said.

(A sop is a thing done to appease someone whose main demands are not being met.)

So why delay the vote until next year? Or maybe never?

The latest version of the state’s minimum wage bill would have nullified Chicago’s home-rule authority to raise the minimum wage in the future. The City Council — under Rahm’s leadership — passed a bill this week raising the city’s minimum wage to $13 an hour by 2019.

That piece of home-rule legislation is expected to be challenged in court.

Quinn may be a lame duck — but he is still quacking.

“Before the new governor arrives, I want a $10-an-hour minimum wage passed outside Chicago,” he told Sneed Wednesday. “I’ve been waiting for Mike [Madigan] to get this needle threaded. I just want a plain vanilla minimum wage passed. But it has just been hurry up and wait for the Senate to act.”

Ah, politics.

CONTINUE READING AT SUNTIMES.COM