With Legislatures Like These, Who Needs Unions?

What a singularly dreadful piece of legislation this is.

Maryland legislators voted to become the first state to enact a law forcing large employers -- namely Wal-Mart Stores Inc. -- to pay a penalty if they fail to spend a certain amount of their payrolls in the state on health insurance for their workers.
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The bill proposed requiring employers with more than 10,000 workers in Maryland to pay a penalty to the state's health-insurance program if they fall short of paying an amount equal to 8% of their payroll in the state for health insurance for those employees.

Maryland, with due respect, what in the [expletive deleted] are you thinking?

Your business tax climate is already more hostile than neighboring Virginia and Delaware and now you're biting the hand that feeds nearly 17,000 members of your state workforce.  Maybe you figure Wal-Mart can't afford not to do business in Maryland, so you're able to strong-arm them, but how likely will your other 10,000+ employee employers (Northrop Grumman and Giant Food) be to stick around if they should fall below the 8% threshold?  The move is certainly a disincentive for future high-growth companies to locate in your state.  Ultimately, you can expect to reap higher unemployment, slower income growth, and lower tax revenues from this move.  At least you stuck a needle in the eye of big, bad Wal-Mart though, which ought to be bear fruit come election time.

Worse still:

Maryland isn't the first state to consider such a bill. Legislators in 12 others have proposed similar bills in the past year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Only six remain under consideration.

Also bear in mind, there are two ways to make health insurance expenditures exceed 8% of wages.  Only one of them involves adjusting the numerator.  The average Wal-Mart pay rate is nearly double minimum wage, so there's plenty of room to tinker with the denominator.

Like most anti-business legislation, this ought to have all kinds of unintended consequences, which tend to impact most gravely those they ostensibly aim to benefit.

Elsewhere:

Michelle Malkin
The Political Teen
Ankle Biting Pundits