A judge has thrown out part of the challenge to a new state law that bars cities and towns from telling private employers what fringe benefits and paid time off they have to provide for workers.
In a ruling released Wednesday, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge said members of city councils from Tucson, Flagstaff and Tempe have no legal standing to challenge the validity of the law.
But the judge's ruling does not interfere with a claim by legislative Democrats, who also sued, claiming that their Republican colleagues acted illegally in restricting what local cities can do.
Attorney Jim Barton represents the challengers. He argued that the new law is contradictory to a 2006 initiative that enabled cities to enact their own minimum wages and is unconstitutional.
“One is it violates the Voter Protection Act because it didn't have three-quarters in both houses. The other is it's unconstitutional because it violates the Home Rule Provision of the Arizona Constitution," Barton said.
Arizona voters approved Proposition 206, which increases the state minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020. But voters in Flagstaff exercised their own local control, approving a plan to take that city's minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021.