Minneapolis voters will not weigh in this November on whether the city should raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour, following a ruling issued Wednesday by the state's highest court.
In a unanimous order released a day after it heard the case, the Minnesota Supreme Court sided with the city of Minneapolis, which had argued that a proposal to raise the wage was not a proper subject for an amendment to the city's charter. The court also ruled in the city's favor on a separate charter amendment case, in which a police-accountability group sought to let voters decide whether to require police officers to carry professional liability insurance.
The ruling is a blow to advocates for both issues who didn't feel like they were being heard by the City Council and instead wanted to take their case to voters. The high court's decision means advocates for these issues are now forced to resume negotiations with council members and the mayor.
"This is about people's lives in a city with the worst racial disparities in the country," said Mike Griffin, field director of Neighborhoods Organizing for Change, a lead group pushing the $15 wage. "If we can't raise wages through a charter amendment, we'll raise them through an ordinance."
The court has not yet issued its full opinions on the two cases, opting to release shorter orders reversing a lower-court decision in the minimum-wage case and upholding an earlier ruling in the insurance matter. The justices were up against a tight timeline; with the deadline to print absentee ballots approaching, Hennepin County elections officials had said they needed a decision by the end of the week.
But the court did provide a window into its thinking, writing that the city's charter does not grant citizens the right to vote on policy decisions, instead vesting that power in the hands of the City Council. In the police insurance case, the court said the proposal conflicts with state law over cities' requirements to back employees in legal matters.
Debates around both issues — and the proper process for taking them to City Hall — had been ongoing for months and often turned emotional. Supporters said the changes were necessary to help erase racial and economic disparities and transform policing. Critics — particularly of the minimum wage plan — worried about broader impacts on the city's economy, while others feared putting the issues on the ballot would open the doors to policymaking by referendum in cities across Minnesota.
Hours before the rulings, activists with 15 Now Minnesota, Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha and Neighborhoods Organizing for Change turned up at City Hall to demand that council members vote to drop the appeal on the minimum-wage issue. After that effort failed — and the Supreme Court ruled in the city's favor — 15 Now's executive director, Ginger Jentzen, said her group was disappointed but resolute. She said months of activism had pushed council members, for the first time, to support a higher wage.
![Chief Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea questioned Bruce Nestor, the attorney representing the wage-hike supporters. ] GLEN STUBBE * gstubbe@startribune.com Tuesday, August 30, 2016 The Minnesota Supreme Court heard arguments in two high-profile citizen proposals angling to get on the Minneapolis ballot this November. One that would boost the city's minimum wage to $15 per hour and another that would require police officers to carry professional liability insurance.](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/65D6YXZMKZN2W7BMP3WAP2P7K4.jpg?&w=1080)
