Maryland Democrats are attempting to override Gov. Bob Ehrlich’s (R-MD) veto of the “Wal-Mart Tax? in the next few days. This anti-business, anti-democratic tax would be the first of its kind in the entire country. It would allow the Maryland State Government to slap an 8% payroll tax on any company that does not provide “substantial healthcare? to all of its employees. Currently, Wal-Mart is the only company that fits this description in Maryland. The LIBERAL General Assembly (where Democrats outnumber Republicans almost 2-1) brazenly passed the bill in the 2005 legislative session. Thankfully, the fiscally prudent Ehrlich vetoed the unnecessary tax.
Speaker of the House Michael Busch (D-MD), Senate President Mike Miller (D-MD), along with the national Democrats and unions are trying to smear Gov. Ehrlich by accusing him of making quid-pro-quo decisions. Wal-Mart has donated $7,000 to his campaign. This adds up to approximately .00008% (8 ten thousandths of a percent!) of Ehrlich’s total campaign treasury (yeah….they really bought off Ehrlich!).
Of course the Democrats forgot to mention they benefited from a huge ($100,000) + fundraiser hosted by the very same unions who would love to see Wal-Mart pay out the kazoo in health benefits. It’s the same old dirty tricks every election year.
The tragic part of this whole episode is that this is just a terrible bill. Everyone knows that the reason people shop at Wal-Mart is their low prices. This tax will not only drive prices up, but make Wal-Mart think about taking their business (and the 10,000+ jobs that go along with it) elsewhere.
And where does this stop? Why not a healthcare tax on businesses who employ 5,000 people, or 1,000, or 10? And why will this only effect Maryland? What about California? Texas? Ohio? Florida? The big government Democrats have gone too far in their tax and spend approach, and their smearing of Ehrlich. They must be stopped. Email Speaker of the House Michael Busch and Senate President Mike Miller, and let them know you will not allow government to interfere in day to day private sector business…this is a national issue and we must stop it before it gets started.
For more information, go here.
Email Speaker of the House Michael Busch
Email Senate President Mike Miller
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3:54 pm [ Quote ]
If I had the money, I’d run ads in Maryland saying that the Maryland Democrats don’t want you employed in MD. Businesses and workers come to my state. I’d have one for each border state and all the Red States.
It would be interesting to see Wal-Mart’s reaction. Maybe if they cancelled construction plans and closed a few stores, that the people would get the message.
4:12 pm [ Quote ]
All this well do is prompt WalMart to use some more of their own dirty tricks. When workers tried to unionize a Walmart in Canada, they closed. If the tax is passed, Walmarts never going to offer healthcare, though I’m sure they can afford to pay the 8% tax.
Besides, Walmart is such a crappy store anyway (ie, shelves are never stocked, random merchandise is strewn about the floor and they only hire illiterates and illegal immigrants). Sure its cheap, but Id rather go to Target any day (where their PR people are at least a little bit better than Walmarts).
4:21 pm [ Quote ]
“All this well do is prompt WalMart to use some more of their own dirty tricks. When workers tried to unionize a Walmart in Canada, they closed. If the tax is passed, Walmarts never going to offer healthcare, though I’m sure they can afford to pay the 8% tax.
Besides, Walmart is such a crappy store anyway (ie, shelves are never stocked, random merchandise is strewn about the floor and they only hire illiterates and illegal immigrants). Sure its cheap, but Id rather go to Target any day (where their PR people are at least a little bit better than Walmarts). ”
ahhh…the typical limo liberal answer. Bottom line is that this will raise prices and will effectively be a tax on those who can least afford it.
“If I had the money, I’d run ads in Maryland saying that the Maryland Democrats don’t want you employed in MD. Businesses and workers come to my state. I’d have one for each border state and all the Red States.
It would be interesting to see Wal-Mart’s reaction. Maybe if they cancelled construction plans and closed a few stores, that the people would get the message. ”
PCD, you’re exactly right…the thing is Wal-Mart has already acted. A huge distribution center that was slated to bring 1000+ jobs to the highly unemployed Eastern Shore of Maryland is already being stalled. Why would Wal-Mart want to bring their business to MD…better yet, why would anyone want to bring their business to MD? This is a disgrace.
5:10 pm [ Quote ]
According to Fast Company Magazine, Walmart does more business than Target, Sears, Kmart, J.C. Penney, Safeway, and Kroger combined. The #2 retailer, Home Depot, makes about as much money in one year as Walmart does in three months. I seriously doubt that they’re losing oh so much money by paying taxes, instead of giving something back to the people who work for them.
Besides, if Walmart is such an “American” company that touted the slogan of Buy American for the past 10 years, why does it account for 10% of all Chinese exports to the US?
5:17 pm [ Quote ]
Does anyone know in more detail about the Walmart helthcare policy? It’d be really sad if no Walmart workers got any healthcare since I could only imagine the sort of healthcare one could afford if they actually worked in Walmart fulltime.
5:20 pm [ Quote ]
Wal-Mart offers eight health plans, with premiums starting at $40 a month for an individual, and doesn’t cap most expenses, the company said.
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/06/23/wal_marts_healthcare_policy_rapped/
6:56 pm [ Quote ]
I am a little confused here. So it is okay for a company to turn record revenue and profits. Then in turn have a large percentage of it’s employees on Government healthcare. Does this business policy not promote big government? This is not an anti-business law, this is a invest in your employees law. One of the major factors in chosing a job is healthcare expense and quality of the healthcare program.
7:21 pm [ Quote ]
Wow.
Did Gov. Ehrlich REALLY have an $8.75 BILLION campaign treasury?
Do you have a job Ian?
8:59 pm [ Quote ]
“One of the major factors in chosing a job is healthcare expense and quality of the healthcare program.”
It makes one wonder why people choose to work at Walmart then….
A number of those that work at Walmart are already have state aid coverage. They are not on state aid coverage because they work at Walmart. It’s not hard to figure out why.
Labor union corruption is the real problem here. Back pocket politician attempts to force companies to provide a “benefit” may set a dangerous precedent and will likely worsen matters. It certainly won’t help contain rising healthcare costs.
9:29 pm [ Quote ]
Once you get a full time job should you not be able to get off of state aid? Have you even looked at the latest wave of Wal-Mart employees they are rather young. But, all in all it is a great business model to get the government to foot your health care costs. Also, should the employees not share in some of the wealth of the company they work for.
11:59 pm [ Quote ]
I don’t think you understand the point here. It’s that the Senate—which is controlled by Democrats—have passed the buck onto the employee, just like they did with the Gov’s HMO bill. How do you think Wal-mart and other businesses are going to handle this tax? By either paying the worker less or cutting benefits. They did the same thing last year with health care, they taxed the HMOs and subsequently, the HMO raised their rates. You Dems are fools.
12:44 am [ Quote ]
As a working adult sad to say your wrong Ian. The largest expense to an employer is health care. To attract quality employees companies create attractive healthcare plans. Even small companies do this. Just look at the list of the top 100 companies to work for, and the employees all list one of the major reasons is a quality healthcare program.
So your okay with the company making recond profits let alone controling a market segment passing cost onto the government(taxpayers)? Ask any person would they take less money for better health care and the answer is a loud HELL YEA. Wal-Mart is the only company cutting corners in MD on this issue even GIANT pays +8% already.
1:12 am [ Quote ]
Do you have a job Ian?
8:48 am [ Quote ]
THE WAR ON WAL-MART…
It’s on in Maryland, and the socialists are winning. My fellow Marylanders Ian Schwartz at The Political Teen and Soccer Dad have the story of how the state’s Dems overrode Gov. Bob Ehrlich’s veto of a bill that that would…...
9:23 am [ Quote ]
I see our Socialist friends javaman1 and remission don’t understand life and jobs. I wonder if they have one other than flacking for the Democrat party.
This is a thinly veiled attempt to tax Wal-Mart. It comes from a bunch of neerdowells who can not make their own money, but spend all day dreaming up how to spend other people’s money to make themselves feel better.
MD will be a hellhole as long as Democrats try to run things (into the ground).
10:22 am [ Quote ]
Javaman1 – you state “the largest expense to an employer is healthcare”. This is incorrect. The largest expenses to an employer are the matching taxes on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and their compliance costs. Matching FICA taxes total about 7.5% of a persons annual salary (up to the first 90K). If you assume an average WalMart worker earns 40K, then WalMart has to spend nearly $3000 to support the payroll taxes for that worker.
I would argue that WalMart, like any going concern has the right to put all of its employees on Govt assistance. Heck, they are paying for it, why not use it?
One other point. If WalMart has 1.3mm employees and 5% are on govt assistance, then that means that nearly 1.2MM are paying payroll taxes for Medicaid and Medicare that they are not using. Hmm. Seems like these workers, and WalMart with their matching FICA are helping out others in society and not really benefitting WalMart employees at all. I would argue that these taxes on wages are going to help out society in general.
Food for thought.
10:28 am [ Quote ]
With Legislatures Like These, Who Needs Unions?...
What a singularly dreadful piece of legislation this is….
10:34 am [ Quote ]
someonehastosayit are you saying you fully support government assistance? I thougth you guys were for smaller government. How many of Wal-Mart store employees make anywhere near 40k? Also, we are taking about total family coverage not just the employee.
11:31 am [ Quote ]
Maryland Democrats Ask the Poor to Eat Cake…
Its usually hopeless to talk economics to most (but not all) Democrats. Its a demographic fact that most hard-core Democrats are removed from the hurly-burly of the private economy, and thus can entertain fanciful notions about poverty, wealth creation…
12:27 pm [ Quote ]
[...] MIchelle Malkin, The Political Teen, Soccer Dad. Below the Beltway to name a few. [...]
12:40 pm [ Quote ]
Javaman,
You obviously have no business experience…Ian is right…WalMart will simply find another way to pass this tax to the consumer (in 3 ways):
1. raise prices of goods
2. cut the amount of employees
3. cut salaries
This is the real world, not the pseudo-liberal utopian society you wish it was. Corporations like Walmart are not just going to sit there and say “OK MD…youre right weve been a baaaaad corporation, I guess we’ll just have to make less money”. My guess is just like the HMOs, they will pass the price on to the consumer. And you know who gets hurt? Not the rich…but the majority of those who shop at WalMart…those who make under 30k/yr. This is a tax on the working class…thanks Mike Busch.
12:43 pm [ Quote ]
PS Do your math again…Ian is right.
7,000 / .00008 = 8.25 million
1:42 pm [ Quote ]
Reason #7,234 why I don’t live in Maryland…
...
2:50 pm [ Quote ]
Thank you Maryland. Wal-Mart is now building a Sam’s Club and a distribution center in my town. Thank you for the jobs, the payroll taxes, and the boost to our economy at the expense of yours.
3:45 pm [ Quote ]
If I were a Wal-Mart exec, and this bill passes, I would have the POS system explicitly list the cost of this on all receipts (either as a separate line item, or calculated from the now-increased item prices.)
All businesses pass on government regulation costs to their customers – I’d like to see them start explicitly listing those costs. Let the customers know why it’s so expensive, and maybe they’ll start complaining to their congress-critters.
3:48 pm [ Quote ]
Keszler,
The MD legislature did override Gov. Erlich’s veto. It is now law in MD.
Congress may not do anything about this, but the MD voters can if Wal-Mart leaves the state or as you said pass on the tax directly to the customers.
4:32 pm [ Quote ]
Why are my comments being deleted?
10:42 am [ Quote ]
[...] MIchelle Malkin, The Political Teen, Soccer Dad. Below the Beltway to name a few. [...]