Washblog

Yesterday SB 6356 (the Wal-Mart bill, aka fair share health care bill), was voted out of committee and is heading to either Ways and Means or the Rules committee.

The bill tracker doesn't show where the bill is yet, but we'll keep an eye on it -  if it's Ways & Means, the bill only has until February 7 to get a hearing and get voted out, or it dies.

In the meantime, the P-I posted an op-ed by a small business owner who takes responsible business seriously:

It's time for big, profitable companies such as Wal-Mart to stop shifting health care costs onto taxpayers. Wal-Mart is one of the nation's most profitable companies and yet more than 3,100 of its employees in Washington state are on taxpayer-funded health care plans. This practice by Wal-Mart and other large employers costs the public tens of millions of dollars each year. That's wrong.

My CPA firm has four employees year-round and more employees during the tax season. For those year-round employees, I play the full cost for full medical benefits plus dental and disability insurance. Last year, that cost my firm $17,600. That's a lot of money for a small company. Some might say I can't really afford it -- I had to borrow last year to pay for my daughter's college tuition.

Read the rest here.