The business community is finally ponying up some cash to fight the proposed minimum wage increase — but it's not much.

Garrick Taylor of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry said his group has put $20,000 into the anti-Proposition 206 campaign it is supposed to lead.

"I know that's not exactly earth-shattering stuff. But it's our first foray financially into this thing," said Taylor.

Taylor said his organization hopes to raise more. However, early ballots go out this Wednesday, and campaign finance reports show that proponents have close to $500,000 to spend on a measure that polls show already has 2-1 support.

The lack of broad-based financial support annoys Steve Chucri, president of the Arizona Restaurant Association. He acknowledged his members would be particularly hard hit by a requirement to boost the minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020. But he said it's not that simple.

"This isn't only a restaurant industry issue. This is a business issue. And if others aren't going to stand up, you can't win a 'no' campaign in a vacuum," Chucri said.

Churci said his association, which financed an expensive legal fight to keep the measure from ever getting to voters, is not prepared to fight this alone.

"If the business community isn't going to engage, I think the restaurant community is looking at it from the perspective of we're going to raise prices to offset this cost, we're going to eliminate jobs, and we'll turn to automation," Churci said.