Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here
Posted on 03/17/2006 12:21:05 AM PST by beaversmom
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - Now that Wal-Mart is required under Maryland law to spend at least eight percent of its payroll for employee health benefits, some state lawmakers want smaller businesses to pay up, too.
Legislation introduced Wednesday in Annapolis would require all businesses to spend 4.5 percent of their payrolls on health care for both full and part-time employees. As with the larger employer law, the money would either have to be use for company-provided insurance or paid to the state.
The bill's sponsors says the 800,000 Marylanders without health insurance could benefit from the proposal. Small business owners say it will cost them too much, but Prince George's County Delegate James Hubbards says the legislation will include grants for some businesses to offset the cost.
A hearing on the bill is set for Thursday.
Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here
Then when the strapped businesses decide to out source jobs to Outer Mongolia the same Democrats will cry bloody murder.
This was the obvious next step. I wish Wal-Mart would close all their stores in MD and lay off all their employees there. That would stop TN and other states from trying this and stop MD from doing it to smaller businesses.
Whether it's a Wal-Mart first, everyone second type law such as this, or anti-smoking laws, state legislatures are hardly the bastions of reason away from the mob. Increasingly, they are the mob.
Well, that didn't take long, did it? Ya think the politicians could have waited, say, a year or so before starting the incrementalism that they are well-known for (and good at). Apparently, they have given up all pretenses and going for "in-your-face" authority.
Yep, start by appealing to the morons who decry corporate America and go after Wal-Mart. Once the blood is in the water, come back for Round 2 and snap up the small fry.
Obviously, "Prince George's County Delegate James Hubbards" has never owned & operated a business, or probably done any other productive work in his sorry life.
A couple of salient points:
1) Businesses do not actually pay these costs- their customers do-- the costs always get passed along to those actually forking over money- the customer.
2) Worse, when increased costs of doing business are mandated ( forced ) on a company, they look to cut expenses- and guess what? Payroll is one of the biggest costs, so they will start culling the less-productive workers. Those "benefits" don't mean a lot if you lose your job.
Idiots.
Om 2nd thought, maybe I like this. I'm an employer that provides health insurance to my employees. I have employees making $35-45,000 per year. Let's use $40,000 as an average. Monthly premium (H&W) is ~$1,000 or $12,000/year. Drop the insurance and pay $1,800/year (4.5% of $40,000) to the state? How quick would a business owner make that decision, thereby invoking... The law of unintended consequences.
'Course, I would be hard-pressed to do that. I value my employees and I could only imagine the health care system that would be managed by bureacrats... the same type of bureacrats that bring you the DMV and the transportation department (such as PENNDOT).
-Monthly premium (H&W) is ~$1,000 or $12,000/year. Drop the insurance and pay $1,800/year (4.5% of $40,000) to the state? How quick would a business owner make that decision, thereby invoking... The law of unintended consequences.
'Course, I would be hard-pressed to do that. I value my employees and I could only imagine the health care system that would be managed by bureaucrats... the same type of bureaucrats t-hat bring you the DMV and the transportation department (such as PENNDOT)-
I doubt if bureaucrats have any idea what insurance costs. Neither do employees who are covered and complain about how poorly they are paid. That 40k employee can cost an employer from $50k to more than $80k a year, depending on benefits. If you took all the employers payments and gave them to the employee to pay, it actually, in the long run, would be cheaper for the employer. It would also make the employee mad when they see how much is actually being taken from them.
Kiss those Maryland Jobs G'bye!!
It's an Election Year...
"Vote for me and I'll/I give/Gave you FREE CRAP!!!"
And not a WORD will be said as the jobs start leaving the state, Unemployment rises, poverty, welfare needs rise, leading to higher taxes, leading to even more welfare offers, leading to even MORE dependency on Democrats to survive.....
I can see this trend so clear that it SCARES ME!!!
Actually, how would that work for the $40,000 employee?
As I don't think he'll qualify for coverage under the state plan, thereby the state is actually making the problem worse.
"I can't be responsible for every under-capitalized business out there."
-Hillary Clinton
Told ya.
This really is turning into "The Land of Peasant Living."
I don't know how to ping the MD state FReeper list. Could you do it?
Thx, 'Pod.
I don't got what you got, so what you got is mine. When anyone, republican or democrat, begins to believe that the state or state force is the solution to any problem then you bet layer upon layer of crap like this.
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