Monday’s Las Cruces City Council meeting grew heated following a presentation concerning the minimum wage.
“You guys have no idea what it takes to run a business. You don't. To my knowledge, very few of you have been in business for yourselves. It's hard, hard to make that payroll,” Mayor Ken Miyagishima said.
Controversy at the recent city council meeting centered around whether or not to decrease the hourly wages of tipped employees. Currently these Las Cruces workers make $4.10 an hour before tips, well above the state’s mandated rate of a little over two dollars.
Mayor Miyagishima stood firmly on the side of business owners, suggesting a temporary decrease could help businesses heal from the pandemic.
“This is the time they need us. Six months is not going to hurt,” Miyagishima said. “I'm telling you these next two months are going to be very, very difficult. They have nothing. Nobody has anything, even the business owners. The PPP is gone. The EIDL loan, they’re done. Everything’s done.”
Many members of the city council were not convinced—including Councilor Johana Bencomo, who talked about her parents' small business. Bencomo said she understands businesses are hurting, but the significant decrease in opportunity for tips in recent months has negatively impacted tipped employees.
“My immigrant parents are business owners. Their livelihood depends on their small business, so I get that tensions are high,” Bencomo said. “I get that it has been such a scary year, and it's not even over yet, but there's no reason to get personal. I’m really disappointed in your reaction, mayor. I think it's irresponsible to try to flare up a narrative that doesn't need to exist.”
Bencomo went on to say finding the answer to this issue will need to be a team effort, requiring the council to support each other and emphasized that support should go to low wage workers. Workers who Bencomo said should not have more resources taken away in this uncertain time.
“Let's find solutions and ways to support our small business community that isn't on the backs of workers.” Bencomo said. “I definitely think we should talk about how we're going to figure out grants. We have done so much more than the federal government. The federal government abandoned our communities, and this city has stepped up. I think we can continue to step up without throwing anybody under the bus.”
The mayor reminded the group employers of tipped workers are required to make up the difference between the $4.10 hourly rate and the standard minimum wage of $10.25 in Las Cruces, if employees don’t make over that amount in tips. Mayor Pro Tem Kasandra Gandara said that fact doesn’t mean tipped employees aren’t hurting.
“I understand that it’s very difficult for everybody, but I have a hard time believing that it’s not more difficult for workers, especially tipped workers,” Gandara said.
Ultimately, the council decided it needed to hear from the stakeholders involved before making any decisions. The city council said it hopes to meet separately with those closest to this issue, both business owners and tipped workers, before making a final decision.
Other issues discussed at the Las Cruces City Council meeting included allocation of development impact fees, a one-time fee paid at the time of development.
Just who will pay these fees is still being debated. Historically, the fees have been split between the developer, homeowner and the rate base that comes from everyone who pays into utilities. Assistant City Manager David Dollahon presented on the ways the council could change this allocation.
“Allocation options—you can continue with the current resolution,” Dollahon said. “You could also do other things. You could rescind and replace the resolution,…allocates all of the development impact fee to the builder/developer at the time of the permit…You could allocate it differently, between the end user, i.e. the homeowner, and the developer.”
The council stated they need more time to explore this issue before making a decision on allocation.
