Override

Yesterday, the Maryland General Assembly voted to override Governor Robert Ehrlich's veto of a bill requiring Wal-Mart to pay more for employee health care. Maryland's Fair Share Health Care Fund Act is the first of its kind in the nation, requiring corporations with large numbers of employees (> 10,000) to pay at least 8 percent of its payroll on employee health care or else pay the difference to a state fund. It now becomes law and a model for more than 30 other states, which are expected to take up similar legislation in coming months.

It's not often that Maryland finds itself at the center of such a closely-watched legislative battle. At the national level, Maryland doesn't count for much. But lots of folks were watching, including Wal-Mart management in Bentonville. And just as Sauron cast his malevolent eye on the Shire from the bowels of Mordor, Wal-Mart officials cast their eyes on our fair state, exerting no small amount of lobbying pressure on General Assembly members. Withdrawing plans for a proposed Wal-Mart distribution center on Maryland's Eastern Shore is probably a certainty now. When asked about it, a Wal-Mart spokesman would only say the company will be re-examining the project "through a different set of lenses."

The override had 3 more votes than necessary; not a single republican voted for it. Maryland General Assembly Republicans are now predicting that the state's business environment is forever poisoned. Needless to say the conservative media is bemoaning the loss of yet another way large corporations can screw their low-income workers. "Partisan" is what failed Republican senatorial candidate, E. J. Pipken, called the vote. "Socialists" is what radical right wing extremist Michelle Malkin calls supporters of the measure.

Regardless the bill now becomes law in 30 days.
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