Letter: When Democrats vote against living ..

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Monday evening I headed to the Capitol to support HB73, the living wage bill which would've increased Utah's minimum wage by $3 from $7.25 to $10.25 with an increase every even-numbered year. During proceedings I witnessed the usual fear-based arguments against lifting the working class out of poverty from conservatives and industry lobbyists.

However, what upset me most reminded me of exactly why I left the Utah Democratic Party. I witnessed all Democrats on the committee essentially vote against moving the bill forward despite claiming to support a living wage. They displayed no backbone or principle for what they claim to be for; what they said and did were two different things.

If the few Democrats in Utah won't fight hard for the working poor who get little to no help from Republicans, there's no point in voting for them, period. No wonder their registration numbers are low.

Joslyn Stevens

Salt Lake City

Letter: When Democrats vote against living wage, poor have nothing left