A petition to ask voters to raise the minimum wage in Bellingham has qualified for the November ballot, Whatcom County Auditor Diana Bradrick announced Friday, June 23.
Review of a second initiative petition submitted by Community First Whatcom, requiring landlords to offer relocation assistance to tenants in some cases, should be completed early next week, Bradrick said.
The Bellingham City Council must pass a resolution before Aug. 1 to place Initiative 1, the minimum-wage measure, on the Nov. 7 ballot, but the vote is a formality.
The auditor’s Friday morning announcement essentially ensures that Bellingham voters will decide this fall whether to raise the city’s minimum wage by $1 over the state minimum on May 1, 2024. Initiative 1 also calls for raising the minimum wage to $2 over the state’s minimum wage in May 2025.
Community First Whatcom organizers on June 20 said they were confident both measures would make the ballot, as they walked a crate full of petitions with more than 13,000 signatures into city hall. The group had collected 7,314 signatures for the minimum-wage initiative and 6,406 signatures for the relocation assistance measure, organizers said. Both measures need 3,093 signatures from registered voters who live within the Bellingham city limits to qualify for the ballot.
If it makes the ballot and is approved by voters in November, Initiative 2 would require landlords to provide relocation assistance to their tenants, equal to three months’ rent, if landlords increase the rent by 8% or more. The relocation assistance measure is similar to a program already in place in Seattle.
