“Republican” Massachusets Governor Charlie Baker (who is up for re-election this fall) signed a bill to raise the minimum wage, add permanent tax holiday weekend, and something Granite Stater’s luckily (just) avoided.
An $800 million paid family and medical leave program overseen by the state government and backed by a payroll tax will be launched so workers can more easily take care of themselves and their families without facing fiscal crises.
The 2-day (sales) tax holiday is “cute” but there will be no tax holiday from the 800 million in new plunder from employees and employers or it’s leasting effects.
That program would be funded through a 0.63 percent payroll tax that would, on average, add up to between $4 and $4.50 weekly per employee, said Senator Jason M. Lewis, who helped craft the bill. That cost would be split roughly 50-50 between employee and employer. Workers would see a diminution in their take-home pay starting next summer, with the leave benefits available to them starting in 2021.
For starters, but the program will never go away, and there will be no holiday from the underestimated costs, necessary budget hikes or inevitable cost-overruns that will drive those weekly garnishments higher and higher.
There’s also no holiday from the cost to businesses – passed on to consumers – from legislators thinking they know what an hour of labor is worth.
And there will be no holiday for low and no-skilled residents for whom it will be increasingly harder to find entry-level jobs.
There will be no holiday from the growth in the state budget to fund rising welfare costs for those unable to find work because of all these added features to the cost of doing business.
But hey, if they “didn’t do something” bands of noisy activists who gathered petitions were going to push ballot questions before the people and ask them to “make the law.” The State government had to do something.
Which is interesting. I’m no expert, but I’ve heard tell of any number of ballot measures passed by the residents of the state of Massachusetts that their legislature has ignored or just thrown out. I think they were reductions in broad-based taxes.
But here we have a threat of public action to raise costs (to quote WCVB) “that could affect virtually every resident of Massachusetts,” and the legislature doesn’t just jump right to it, they do it in record time.
Finally, New Hampshire residents take note. You can’t have a state-mandated incursion into the private market without an income tax. You tried to hide it behind poorly throughout language and evasive funding formulas. We joined the chorus of public opposition, at great length I might add, and HB 628 died.
We know you have the bride of “Medical Family Leave Act” cued up just waiting to dump it on us again next session. And we know you are hoping that you will ride a mythical blue wave that will give you the votes and a governor willing to sign it.
I’m not saying you won’t get any of that, but I am saying that the threat of Democrat rule to the people and tax-free culture of New Hampshire is real. Republicans and independents who don’t want to live in a big “northern county” of Massachusetts had best keep the Liberal out of office, or they will bring you all the “joys” that legislative largess can heap upon state statute at taxpayer expense.
You’ve been warned, again.
H/T Keith Carlsen
