Published: February 04, 2009 11:05 pm      

Chamber group supports small business health insurance bill

CUMBERLAND — A group of local businesses is looking to help out small business when it comes to health insurance.

Though the Maryland Chamber of Commerce hasn’t stated its stance on the Small Business Health Insurance Stimulus Act, the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce Legislative Committee is in favor of the bill.

Realtor Liz Skidmore said during a committee meeting Wednesday that she thinks this bill would be helpful for small businesses and their employees.

“I’ve also heard comments from other people who wanted to try to do something like this with their insurance, but because of the 50 percent match, that their employees would rather have no coverage than to pay the 50 percent of the premium,” she said.

Delegate Roger Manno, Democrat, Montgomery County, requested House Bill 4 be drafted at the beginning of July. The bill would alter subsidy requirements for small businesses under the Small Employer Health Benefit Plan Premium Subsidy Program.

Committee co-chairman Bill Valentine said, with this bill, it looks like the state would help the employee pay a certain amount.

Another bill proposed in 2007 — which was withdrawn by the sponsor — and again in 2008, that would provide a nonworking or working shift break to an employee under specified circumstances, died in the Economic Matters Committee. But HB 16, filed by Manno in mid-August and brought up after its first reading in January, returned for discussion by the committee.

The bill would again require an employer to provide a nonworking or working shift break to employees. Employees who work four to six consecutive hours would be provided a minimum paid break of 15 minutes; those working more than six consecutive hours would get a paid break of at least 30 minutes.

“From a recordkeeping standpoint, this would be difficult for businesses because you’d have to document the behavior,” said Patsy Koontz, public relations manager at NewPage.

Valentine said this bill would allow employees the ability to sue employers if they didn’t get their “smoke break.”

Robin Summerfield, local representative for U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, said it seems to be the responsibility of labor to negotiate these terms, not government.

“And I know very few businesses that don’t allow people breaks,” Valentine added.

The chamber opposed the bill, saying “this is a government-mandated bill that would interfere with private-sector benefits. A one-size-fits-all approach to shift break benefits, already offered by most employers, would create administrative burdens for the private sector and expose Maryland’s businesses unnecessarily to civil causes of action on issues that can be resolved through employer internal processes.” The committee also opposed the bill.

Baltimore County Democrat Stephen Lafferty prefiled HB 176, Bay Restoration Act of 2009, which would prohibit the installation of an on-site sewage disposal system unless the system utilizes nitrogen removal technology.

Once again, the committee backed the chamber and opposed the bill.

Valentine said this means the average residential septic tank would cost more to install and require an extra acre just for the septic system. He added that an additional $5,000, at minimum, would be needed for the system.

“It’s going to hurt the rural areas that rely on septic systems,” he said.

Co-chairman Bob Smith said HB176 would slow down development.

Skidmore agreed and said it would definitely have an impact on housing. She said the bill is vague and does not spell out what is actually a statute and what is available to individuals versus municipalities.

However, she and Summerfield agreed the intent of the bill is not bad.

“They want to use better technology, that’s the intent of the bill,” Summerfield said, “but does this get us there?”

Track these bills and others on the Maryland General Assembly Web site at http://mlis.state.md.us.

Contact Tess Hill at thill@times-news.com.