The Beacon Hill Report - August 7, 2014 Edition

Date: August 06, 2014

The Great and General Court wrapped up its 2014 session in a
frenzy of legislative activity that required suspension of the rules to conduct
business until 1:00 AM on August 1. There were several bills pending that would
have affected small businesses adversely – increasing health care costs or
increasing licensing and regulations of small enterprises – but most failed to
reach the Governor’s desk for his signature.

NFIB was involved with several measures as the deadline
approached. For example, NFIB wrote to legislators about the disproportionate impact
of new health care mandates on premiums for small business owners and their
workers. I am pleased to report that none of the proposed health care mandates
were enacted prior to the deadline. We were also concerned about several
licensing bills that tend to become barriers to entry for new entrepreneurs and
regulatory burdens for existing businesses. In states that want to encourage
small businesses and job creation, licensing is restricted to businesses that
pose a significant threat to public health and safety.  

Addiction Bill Adds Mandate

Widely supported legislation to address the opiod addiction
issue unfortunately included mandated inpatient coverage without prior
authorization and review. This provision is inconsistent with the state’s cost
saving efforts to ensure best practices are followed and to manage care. More
importantly, it is inconsistent with national criteria and evidence based
practice and threatens to exacerbate the bed capacity problem here in the state.
The effective date of August 1, 2015 indicates the legislation fails to address
the alleged “emergency” in opiod addictions, but does give us time to urge the
next legislature to make changes that ensure that best practices are
implemented.   

On another health care matter, the legislature considered imposing
a limit on consumers’ out of pocket prescription drug costs in high deductible
plans. The bill would disrupt coverage for 200,000 MA residents, many of them
small business owners who take advantage of the high deductible products to
reduce costs. It is important that legislators hear how these wonderfully
sounding proposals can and do cause increases in health care costs that need to
be carefully weighed prior to taking action. 

Ballot Question One: Repealing Indexing the Gas Tax

One year after the gas tax was increased, proponents of
Question One to repeal tying the gas tax to inflation (guaranteeing an increase
in the gas tax every year without a vote of the legislature) countered
opponents’ arguments about the need for adequate funding for new roads and
bridges.  The repeal proponents presented
a $2 billion tab listing the costs incurred by taxpayers for various scandals
in state government over the past few years, including the state crime lab’s
evidence tampering scandal ($332 million) and hundreds of millions more for the
state’s failed health care connector website and the subsequent enrollment of
ineligible persons. In addition, state revenues increased 5.6% to $23.37
billion in the fiscal year ended June 30, an increase of $1.25 billion over FY
2013. Massachusetts does not suffer from a shortage of revenue.

NFIB supports the repeal of indexing because 1. the gas tax
has a disproportionate impact on small business owners; 2. automatically
increasing a tax without a vote of the legislative body is bad policy; and 3.
the state continues to divert revenue from the gas tax away for uses other than
the repair of roads and bridges. Voters must vote Yes on Question One in
November to repeal the indexing of the gas tax to inflation. Vote Yes to end
automatic annual increases in the gas tax.    
 

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