The City Supervisors are
joined by the Ninth Circus Court in making the lives of San
Franciscans worse.
I've explained the scam
that passes for City Health Insurance.
I recently met with three
restaurant owners to discuss the response to the new tax on
businesses that went into effect in January.
The City ordinance
requires that all businesses (starting out with businesses of 20 or
more employees) either pay $1.60 per hour for health insurance for
each employee or pay that amount to the City. For the average
restaurant this works out to a 5% increase in prices and a similar
decrease in labor hours.
I estimate that 3-5,000
workers will lose their jobs because of this ordinance. But they
will find work outside the city because of the strong local labor market.
So the City Supervisors
have raised the price of all goods in the City 5% and reduced the
number of jobs by several thousand.
That is not the worst.
The worst is the failure of the court system. The first judge to see
this case said 'the tax can not be levied until the legality of the
law is examined because Federal Law has jurisdiction in this matter.'
Then three judges from the Ninth Circus said 'the tax gets applied
immediately because we think it will be legal.' Now it will take 9
months for the full Court to hear the case and decide, then it will
go to the U.S. Supreme Court years before a final decision.
The issue is effectively
decided now. Most businesses will give the entire $1.60 ($50,000
increase in payments in the average businesses) to the employee in
health benefits rather than pay the City and the money, once paid to an insurance plan for the employees, can't be taken
back, nor can the coverage be reduced without serious problems.
How is that for justice?
Doesn't matter, we pay a new 5% sales tax in San Francisco, the City doesn't get the revenue and
workers at the bottom of the ladder have to move to jobs outside the
City.
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