Wisconsin Senate Dems Introduce Three Craptacular Bills

The Wisconsin Senate Democrats have decided to come screaming out of the gate with proposals to further harm the business climate in Wisconsin. 

The first three bills of the new session have been introduced in the State Senate and will be a priority Majority Leader Russ Decker (D-Weston) announced today. The bills target important issues for working families in Wisconsin.

Senate bill 1 will raise the minimum wage and is authored by Decker. The bill would increase the minimum wage from $6.50 to $7.60 and then index it for inflation.

Once again, the economy is on the bubble and the Dems want to make it more difficult for businesses to hire unskilled labor.  Then again, perhaps this is a back door proposal to encourage the manufacturing sector to create machines to do these jobs. 

Senate bill 2 is the Employee Wage Protection Act, authored by Senator John Lehman (D-Racine). The bill makes payment of unpaid wages a priority when a company goes out of business. It also closes a loophole created by a 7th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that held Wisconsin wage lien laws would not apply in bankruptcy cases.

The real effect of this will be to kill businesses faster.  If you are a business that is struggling, what do you do?  You borrow money to either invest in something to spur the company or even just to pay the bills until things turn around.  Who is going to loan money to a company on the verge of bankruptcy when they know that they will be last in line if that company goes bankrupt?  Only fools.  What vendor is going to do business with the company for anything but cash?  Dumb ones.  This bill takes away that last lifeline that companies use to stay afloat. 

Senate Bill 3 will require insurance companies to cover treatment for children with autism and is authored by Senator Judy Robson (D-Beloit). The bill would require every individual and group health insurance policy and plan, including defined network plans and cooperative sickness care plans, to cover the cost of treatment for insured persons with autism, Asperger’s syndrome or other pervasive developmental disorders.

Should insurance cover autism?  Perhaps.  But by forcing every insurance company to carry coverage, it further drives up the cost of health insurance.  Many companies in these past years have been dropping insurance or moving more of the cost to the employee.  This will help continue that trend.

You think Wisconsin’s business climate is hostile now?  Just wait until after this next session.  You ain’t seen nothing yet.