Out-Of-State Money Pours In To Raise Colorado's Minimum Wage

DENVER (CBS4) - Voters will get to decide whether to raise the minimum wage in Colorado after the proposal made it on the November ballot.

A lot of out-of-state money will be poured into the fight. Much of it is expected to come from organizations funded by labor unions that are helping push a constitutional amendment in Colorado that would raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour over the next four years. Restaurants are among those that will be hit hardest.

The group behind the ballot initiative calls itself Colorado Families for a Fair Wage, but most of the funding for the measure has come from outside Colorado.

"The people who are running the campaign are not from Colorado, the people donating to the campaign are not from Colorado. All their money has gone to (Washington, D.C.), 90 percent has gone to D.C., 90 percent has come from out of state," said Tyler Sandberg with the opposition group Keep Colorado Working, a coalition of Colorado businesses.

Sandberg says the influence of national groups is evident in what he calls a "one-size-fits-all" approach.

"Because it's people who don't understand Colorado. People from Colorado would understand the difference of cost of living between a small family-owned restaurant in Alamosa and a big box store in Denver," Sandberg said.

"I don't care whether in Alamosa or right here in the Denver region, there is no way folks can meet their basic needs on less than $300 a week. That's what the current minimum wage is," said Felicia Griffin, a campaign organizer who insists the effort is home grown.

Griffin admits much of the money raised so far -- more than $1 million -- has been from out of state, including nearly $185,000 from the Fairness Project out of California, and $350,000 from the Center for Popular Democracy Action fund out of New York. Both organizations have ties to national labor unions, and dues go up if wages do.

"We're up against national very politically connected labor unions that have unlimited dollars," Sandberg said.

"It's hard to fund these initiatives initially until they're on the ballot with local money, but it's definitely local hearts, local businesses, local faith leaders, local people that are actually impacted by this that are leading the charge," Griffin said.

So far opponents have raised just over $100,000, with much of it from restaurants.

In addition to Colorado; Arizona, Maine and Washington are also considering ballot measures to boost the minimum wage to $12 an hour.

California, New York and Washington, D.C. raised their minimum wage to $15 an hour.