Here is an article I wrote back in April about how we got to this Citizen Referendum. We killed the competing measure in the Senate and sent this to you to vote a straight yes-or-no.

Standing up to lobbyists’ cynical effort to defeat minimum wage increase

Talking with my constituents in line at the supermarket or down on the docks is usually a real joy. But sometimes, it can be a sobering reminder of the difficulty lots of our neighbors have at just getting by.

Good-paying jobs are harder and harder to come by, and when they’ve been replaced, it's been with lower-wage jobs in the service or hospitality sectors. Too many Mainers work hard at one, two, or three jobs and still can’t provide for their families. Economic security eludes them, as money comes in with every paycheck only to immediately flow right back out. Raises or savings are a just a dream.

Over the years, the Maine Legislature has considered lots and lots of bills that would have given those low-wage earners a fighting chance by raising our state’s minimum wage.

Last year alone, lawmakers considered seven bills -- including one that I proposed -- to raise the wage by varying degrees. In all the considerable time we spent on those bills, there was one constant: The fierce opposition by corporate lobbyists.

That opposition was relentless. Lobbyists laid out their doomsday scenario, saying that even a 50 cent increase to the minimum wage would be the death of jobs in Maine.

Many of us in the Legislature believe that a hard day’s work deserves a fair pay. But eventually all these bills failed, thanks in part to pressure from those lobbyists. With their bottom lines protected, the lobbyists were overjoyed. Once again, they had killed efforts to give hardworking Mainers a raise.

But this time, Mainers decided they’ve have the final say. They turned to Maine’s citizen initiative process. They did the hard work to gather tens of thousands of signatures to put a question on the ballot that would increase Maine’s minimum wage incrementally, until it reached $12 per hour in 2020. It would also give raises to tipped workers.

Now, seeing the writing on the wall, those same lobbyists that fought tooth and nail against raising the minimum wage for years, are begging lawmakers to pass their plan for a smaller minimum wage increase to $10 per hour and include no raise for tipped workers. If we do that, the lobbyists’ proposal would compete directly with the citizen initiative.

Those lobbyists say they recognize that Mainers need a raise, and they’re committed to making sure they get one.

But why should we believe them? Why should we trust that they have Maine workers’ backs? Just last year, they said a 50 cent increase in the state’s minimum wage would bring the sky crashing down over Maine businesses, sending workers to the unemployment line. Now, suddenly, they say they can afford an increase of five times that much?

Maybe they’ve really seen the light. But even if they have, it’s too little, too late.

Our Democratic colleagues in the House have already recognized this “competing measure” for what it is -- an effort to defeat the citizen initiative by splitting the vote. The House voted last week to rebuke the competing measure, and I’m urging my Senate colleagues to do the same.

Whether you would support a minimum wage increase in November or not, one thing is clear: Mainers have done their part. They want a clean, up-or-down vote on the citizen initiative.

They don’t need or want the Legislature to throw a wrench in the gears of the initiative process at the last minute -- especially on behalf of business lobbyists who have never been on the side of Maine’s low-wage workers.

When it comes up in the Senate, I’ll be voting against the competing measure. I believe it’s time to let Mainers have their say.