LANSING – Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville on Monday stood by his decision to be the lead sponsor on a bill that would render moot a ballot proposal raising the minimum wage, saying doing so was within the realm of responsibility for legislators.

“My concern was that you had a lot of out-of-state money backing up a proposal that has some maybe unintended consequences that were very serious,” Richardville (R-Monroe) said. “To put a ballot proposal out without having a public hearing, without talking about it to elected officials, I think could have caused major problems in our economy.”

The ballot proposal would gradually increase the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour across the board, including for tipped workers, whose hourly rate currently stands at $2.65. By contrast, Richardville’s proposal (SB 934 ) would increase the minimum wage beginning September 1, 2014, to $8.15 ($2.93 for tipped employees).

He said since the news broke, he’s had a couple of conversations and “some people thought we were getting in the way of things.” But, he said, “It was totally within the realm of our responsibility.

“This (ballot) proposal did some things to the restaurant industry, did some things to tourism industry, would make senior citizens suffer, probably take away summer jobs from young people,” he said. “I don’t think it was the intent of those people … All we’re doing is taking an issue people say is important and we’re going to deal with it in a reasonable way.”

Richardville said the problem with a ballot proposal in this instance is that it sometimes “oversimplifies” things, pointing to the state’s medical marijuana initiative as an example. He said while there is no problem with medical marijuana, the Legislature is now passing laws to refine the law so it maintains its intent.

Richardville’s proposal was kept on the Senate floor instead of going to a committee, and it was not immediately clear the direction the chamber will take with it. He said it is possible the bill could come up for discussion this week, but it faces competition from other heavy-hitting items like the budget, transportation funding, helping Detroit’s bankruptcy and filling the Health Insurance Claims Assessment revenue shortfall.

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