Bill creates yet another “enterprise zone” with fees levied on large employers with more than 500 employees who qualify for state aid in healthcare insurance. The fee is $2,300 per qualifying employee. This comes to us in the week following a large employer (Palantir) leaving the state over the state’s over zealous mandates and regulations. But some in our legislature are not satisfied running off business one at a time, and evidently wish to speed up the pace. Healthcare insurance is part of employee compensation, but not required…so, why a mandate and penalty for not providing what is not required? This new program will be overseen by an agency (HCPF) which has already ignored prior legislative requests for audit. Adding more insult to taxpayers, the bill adds in the Safety Clause.
