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September 28, 2005
Employer Mandates for Health Insurance?
The Suffolk County (N.Y.) legislature has approved a bill that would mandate large employers to contribute funds to employee health insurance. The legislation calls for $3 per employee per hour to be contributed to a fund that will go toward health insurance.
Though not the first of its kind, this bill would be the first to be enacted if the county executive approves it rather than issuing a veto, which was the case with a similar bill in Maryland.
Posted by WorkerBee at 03:01 PM | Comments (0)
September 13, 2005
Small Business Pension Adoption Down
A report released by the Congressional Research Service finds that employer-provided pension plans are declining in popularity. According to the report, both the number of employers offering plans and employees participating in plans shrank in 2004.
Small businesses, not surprisingly, were less likely to offer plans to year-round, full-time employees than larger businesses. According to the report, only 26.5 percent of workers at firms with less than 25 employees participated in employer-sponsored plans verses 48.6 percent at employers with 25-99 employees and 67 percent at employers with 100 or more employees.
From a demographic point of view, the report found that men and women participated in roughly equal measure with women edging out men 54.1 percent to 52.9 percent. White workers also were more likely (59 percent) than black (49.7 percent), Hispanic (31 percent) or other non-white (50.8 percent) workers to participate when plans were offered.
To encourage plan adoption and sponsorship, NSBA advocates for streamlining the formation and administration of qualified benefit plans. Watch the work of the House Ways and Means committee this fall as Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) works on his pension reform bill.
Posted by at 10:23 AM | Comments (0)
Sept. 11 Disaster Loans Misused
In a story reported by the Associated Press, the disaster loans established to help businesses harmed by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks always were not used for that purpose. In Colorado alone, 411 loans were issued under the Supplemental Terrorist Activity Relief (STAR) loan program administered by U. S. Small Business Administration. Some of the businesses who received the STAR loans include a liquor store, a tire-store chain and a nail salon.
In a terse press release, Senate Small Business Committee Chair Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) stated, "The apparent widespread abuse of loans provided through the Supplemental Terrorist Activity Relief Act is nothing short of an outrage."
Posted by WorkerBee at 09:18 AM | Comments (0)
September 06, 2005
Katrina - The Aftermath
The absolute disaster that is Katrina will affect the activities of Congress for months to come. Adding the hurricane’s effects to an already overcrowded fall schedule will increase the difficulty for legislative successes.
Estate tax repeal, long scheduled for a vote on the Senate’s first day back at work, has been postponed indefinitely; it may be the first of many changes in the coming months.
Calls for aid packages, investigative hearings and possibly a new energy bill will compete with two Supreme Court nominations, appropriations season and the reconciliation process. And let’s not forget about the ongoing Social Security debate or the President’s Panel on Tax Reform slated to drop its recommendations at the end of September.
The coming months will certainly test the elasticity of the projected legislative calendar.
Posted by at 03:04 PM | Comments (0)