ANNAPOLIS (April 5, 2017): In response to the House voting to concur with the Senate’s amendments to mandatory paid leave bill HB1, the following statement may be attributed to Mike O’Halloran, Maryland State Director for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB):
Since the beginning of this session, the small business community has fought tirelessly against mandatory paid leave in the state of Maryland. As it stands, if implemented this bill would cost thousands of jobs, a majority of which would disappear from small businesses.
Despite our ardent opposition to the concept of the government mandating employee benefits, more than a dozen reasonable and responsible amendments were offered to lawmakers to help Maryland small businesses mitigate the impact of this mandate. Unfortunately, although these changes were supported in a bipartisan manner, the legislature chose not to listen to the pleas from Maryland’s job creators.
Last month, Governor Hogan expressed his commitment to veto the bill if changes were not made by the time the legislation arrived on his desk. We have no doubt that the Governor will adhere to that promise and veto the bill to avoid the harsh economic side effects that allowing it to become law would create.
