Wal-Mart, unions spar over health care

In a local version of a national fight, unions and Wal-Mart clashed in the capital last week over a proposal to make the state’s biggest companies spend 9 percent of their payroll on health care benefits.

Jan Teague, president of the state retail association, said the “ridiculous” proposal would hurt business and does nothing about the real problem: fast-rising insurance and medical costs.

“We are a necessary employer,” Teague said. “We should be valued and taken care of, not attacked.”

Union members and supporters crowded a legislative hearing room Thursday to tell lawmakers that it’s the uninsured workers who should be valued and taken care of. Without company insurance, they said, people will fall back on state aid and charity care, costing everyone more.

The state “wouldn’t have to tell business how to spend their money if they would just step up and do the right thing by their employees,” said Paul Henry, a part-time supermarket worker.

The bill, SB 6356, would require companies with 5,000 or more employees to disclose their health care spending and to spend at least 9 percent of payroll on health costs. If they spend less, they’d have to pay the difference to the state. Wal-Mart, which employs 16,000 Washingtonians but won’t say how much it spends on employee health coverage, has taken the lead in fighting the bill.

“For a company with $10 billion in profits just last year to say they can’t afford health care benefits for their employees is simply not true,” said Anthony Walters with the Spokane Alliance.

“Panhandling: A senator who proposed a bill that would make panhandling on public highways a misdemeanor drew hackles this week by comparing the practice to bears begging for food in Mount Rainier National Park.

“It used to be OK to feed the bears,” said Sen. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood. “When people stopped feeding them, they did not starve to death. They became productive bears.”

Senate Judiciary Chairman Adam Kline, D-Seattle, replied, “Bears were not there because they couldn’t find work. These are human beings who are reduced to this position.”

“Taxing drug dealers: Republican state Rep. Tom Campbell proposed taxing drug dealers. Legislation he introduced last week would require dealers and users to pay taxes on their illicit inventories by purchasing state tax stamps for all cocaine, heroine, pills, other drugs and bootleg liquor intended for sale in Washington.