A bill that would have tied the state's minimum wage to the rate of inflation was unexpectedly withdrawn by its sponsor today after both workers and employers expressed concerns about the potentially negative impact on the state's job market. The state's current minimum wage is $7.50 an hour -- 25 cents higher than the federal minimum -- and some lawmakers feared another increase could have a chilling effect on jobs.

Two weeks ago, state Rep. John Tuttle, a Sanford Democrat, had no inkling that his minimum wage bill would have such a short shelf life. "These are sort of crucial economic times, and as chair, you have to listen to your caucus," he says.

And what the eight Democrats on Tuttle's Labor Committee told him over the weekend was that they had been getting plenty of pushback from small business owners -- and even some employees -- who were concerned that the bill would result in lost jobs.

"And reluctantly, I did withdraw the bill," Tuttle says. "It's probably one of the harder decisions I've had to make in my years in Augusta, but as chair you do have to listen to your caucus, and you know, you have to listen to your constitutents. If your constitutents are telling you that this is not the right time, then, you know, you're not up here representing yourself, you're up here representing your constitutents."

"People out there are hemorrhaging, small business people are having a hard time today," says state Rep. Herbert Clark, a Millinocket Democrat. "It's not so much a bad time, it's just not the right time."

Clark, who spent most of his life working in a paper mill, says that in eastern and northern Maine, minimum wage jobs are the only option for a lot of people, and he says the state's businesses just can't absorb too many more costs.

"I got business after business up there that's hemorrhaging and I don't need to add any more burden to anybody," Clark says. "And I think we're going to save people at the end of the day by not having to have them worry about losing some of their benefits or having somebody be laid off because they have to pay minimum wage or some other beneift package. I just -- overall, it was a hard decision for each and every one of us. We're all struggling, we're going through some dramatic times we've never seen before and we need to do what we can to save the businesses out there now that's struggling."

Only one member of Tuttle's committee voted against the move to kill the minimum wage bill. "I don't look at minimum wage as only an entrance level job," says Democratic Sen. Stan Gerzovsky of Brunswick. "I know too many single parents that are working at minimum wage jobs, and those parents have seen their spending power decreased over time. I think that we should at least hold firm. If we had the same dollar value for minimum wage that we had in 1950, I think people would be making substantially more."

But Peter Gore of the Maine Chamber of Commerce says the committee's vote reflects concerns raised across the state that the economy is still too fragile to force added costs onto business. "The plans busiensses are making aren't necessarily about expanding, as much as we would want them to," Gore says. "It's about surviving."

Tuttle says he hopes the state's economic picture can improve enough over the next year to allow reconsideration of his minimum wage plan.