Despite some legislative ups and downs in 2015, Minnesota small businesses are better off because of these legislative actions.
Minnesota small businesses had some victories as lawmakers
worked through a variety of bills this legislative season, which included a
special mid-June session. Some of the biggest wins for small
businesses—sometimes in the form of failed bills or proposals—are below.
Radical Gas Tax
Proposal Defeated
A measure—strongly opposed by NFIB—to extend the state’s
sales tax to gasoline at the wholesale level was abandoned by majority party
senators and Gov. Mark Dayton. It would have raised the gas tax initially by 16
cents per gallon on top of the current state tax of 28.5 cents per gallon,
giving Minnesota the fifth highest tax in the country. It would only go up from
there when the price of gas inevitably increased. “It was really a radical idea
that needed to be defeated,” says NFIB/Minnesota State
Director Mike Hickey.
Workers’ Compensation
Costs
A bill that aims to cut escalating healthcare costs within
the workers’ compensation system should aid business owners in the coming
years. Healthcare costs within the system are pushing up the cost of workers’
compensation insurance and the new legislation will reduce costs by subjecting
most workers’ compensation inpatient services and procedures to the Medicare
DRG fee schedule, Hickey says. “This is a dramatic change from the current law
where many providers simply bill on a ‘usual and customary’ basis,” Hickey
says. “Clinics, hospitals and some providers are billing workers’ compensation
patients at a level much higher than general health insurance and legislative
action has been desperately needed for years.”
The legislation also gives the commissioner of Labor and Industry
the authority through rule making to implement the same cost-cutting reforms to
outpatient services and procedures that make up the vast majority of healthcare
costs in the system. If the various parties (hospitals, clinics and insurers)
do not reach an agreement in the coming months, he has the authority to
implement the reforms on Jan. 1, 2017. Minus a significant cost-cutting
agreement, NFIB will strongly urge the commissioner to act.
Paid Leave/Fair Scheduling
Mandate Stopped Cold
Bills to further micromanage small businesses were stopped
cold in the 2015 session. These two bills and other negative proposals only
received an informational hearing in the Senate Jobs Committee and were never
heard in the new House.
Unemployment Insurance Tax Credit/Cut Stalls
A proposal that would have reduced unemployment taxes to employers by $30-100 per employee stalled in the 2015 session. It was proposed do to a whopping $1.6 billion projected surplus in the state unemployment insurance trust fund. NFIB will push hard for the credit/cut again next session.
