Good, bad results of legislative session

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June 2008 — Vol. 86, No. 5

CAPITOL REPORTER

Here is how major business-related bills fared at the legislature this year:

Most of the Labor Committee’s anti-business proposals — including paid sick leave and costly workers’ comp bills — died of inaction as time ran out on the session.
Two bills that would have increased energy costs and compromised energy service reliability failed. One imposed a “windfall profits” tax on certain power plants and discouraged the siting of new plants. The other created a new bureaucracy to procure electricity.
Most proposed property tax “reforms” were rejected because they would simply have shifted the tax burden from one class of taxpayers to another.

A bill expanding the state health plan passed. It allows municipalities and small businesses to participate in the plan, under the guise of “cost savings” that will likely not materialize (and could, in fact, cost more). The bill is a first step toward adopting a single-payer, government-run health care system.
An approved bill will increase the state minimum wage from $7.65 to $8 on Jan. 1, 2009, and to $8.25 on Jan. 1, 2010.
Legislators approved a global warming bill opposed by businesses. Although better than its original version, the bill imposes aggressive statewide caps on the emission of greenhouse gases that will require significant reductions from current emission levels.