Lawmaker seeks to expand 'Wal-Mart tax'

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A Democratic lawmaker is aiming to force Maryland's small businesses to pay a minimum level of employee health benefits, expanding the so-called "Wal-Mart tax" to nearly every business in the state.

The bill by Delegate James W. Hubbard, Prince George's Democrat, would require businesses with fewer than 10,000 employees to spend 4.5 percent of payroll on employee health care or pay an equivalent amount to the state's Medicaid program. Nonprofit businesses with fewer than 10,000 employees would have to spend 3 percent or give the money to Medicaid.

The proposal closely resembles the bill Democrats passed this year over the veto of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican. It requires businesses with more than 10,000 employees to pay 8 percent of payroll on employee health benefits or pay it to Medicaid. Wal-Mart is the only business in the state that doesn't comply.

However, the governor warned that the Wal-Mart bill was the first step toward a government-run, taxpayer-funded health system.

An Ehrlich spokesman said the prediction was rapidly coming true.

"The Maryland General Assembly has put virtually every small business in the cross hairs for a new tax," spokesman Henry P. Fawell said. "Politicians are picking the winners and losers in the marketplace. ... It is government-run health care."

Schaefer says ...

It wasn't the first time William Donald Schaefer's words have gotten him in trouble, and it probably won't be the last.

But last week the Maryland comptroller got caught ogling a young woman on Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s staff during a Board of Public Works meeting.

Two days later, Mr. Schaefer sent a letter to the woman, telling her, "Sorry you were put thru this ordeal!" and complimenting her for handling the resulting flap "as a trooper."