Background
- The Maryland General Assembly passed two "bad for business" bills.
- Governor Robert L. Ehrlich vetoed these bills, stopped them from becoming law, because NFIB and others in the small-business community asked him to so.
- When the Maryland General Assembly convenes again, they will likely override the governor's vetoes, making these bills law, unless the small-business community joins together to stop this from happening.
- You can help by contacting your delegates and senators where you live and work, by talking with other business owners and asking them to do the same, by writing a letter to your local newspaper or calling into your local radio station.
Issues/Bills
HB 391 Minimum Wage Increase
- HB 391 increases the Minimum Wage from $5.15 to $6.15 an hour.
- This is the first time Maryland will have a higher minimum wage than the federal minimum wage – which is precedent setting and will set the stage for a political fight lead by unions and others to increase the minimum wage year after year.
- HB 391 does not apply to local or state government workers. This new wage mandate was too costly for them and a majority of assembly members voted to not include governments in the new mandate.
- NFIB believes that wage and benefit decisions need to be made by the small-business owner not the government.
HB 1284/SB 790 Maryland Fair Share Health Care ("Wal-Mart" Bill)
- HB 1284/SB 790 requires employers with 10,000 employees (Wal-Mart, Comcast, Northrope Grumman) to pay 8 percent of their payroll on employee health care or pay an 8 percent payroll tax. The bill treats full-time and part-time employees the same and exempts state and local governments.
- This bill only applies to large businesses, but make no mistake this is the camel's nose under the tent, the proponents of this bill were very clear, they want to impose a payroll tax on small-business owners to establish a government-run health-care system in Maryland.
- Many proponents, which include unions and proponents of government-run health-care along with some legislative leaders, have vowed to reduce the threshold and make this law apply to all employers big and small.
- NFIB will continue its fight for real health-care solutions like Small-Business Health Plans (AHPs) and health savings accounts.
