Senate Bill 1 - a bill that creates a new government agency, a new government welfare program, and a new tax on income has passed the New Hampshire Senate on Thursday by a vote of 13-10 (one Democratic Senator did not vote) with the 10 Republicans voting against the bill.
The Democrat-sponsored bill is expected to pass the Democratic House in the ‘Commie or Die’ State. It would then be delivered to Governor Sununu’s desk for signature or veto. While Sununu has recently been relatively vocal in his commitment to protect against an income tax, he has also indicated that he wants people to have paid family leave in New Hampshire. The Democrats would need only two Senators and 31 Representatives to vote for the bill to override a veto.
The socialist bill would mandate that every non-governmental employer withhold 0.5% of each employee’s income. The money would be given to the New Hampshire government, and paid out to any employee who had a ‘qualifying event’, which would seemingly include a birth, illness, injury, or those who are caring for a relative who might be sick or injured.
The program would be unsustainable as constructed by this bill (according to the New Hampshire Government Dept. of Employment Security) and would not function properly no matter which adjustments were made to it. Additionally, the program would involve redistribution of wealth from those who earn money to those who earn less money. The authors accomplished this by including language that calculates the tax by percentage of income but assures that the welfare benefit is not less than $125 per week or greater than 0.85 of the average weekly wage in New Hampshire (meaning that if your salary is greater than the 44th percentile of earners in New Hampshire, this program is socialist in nature, because it would use government force to redistribute your wealth).
Currently, employers must pay the State government payroll taxes whenever they pay any employee. This tax goes towards unemployment insurance, it seems. This new ‘FMLI’ tax would be added onto the unemployment payroll tax. This would inevitably result in employees in New Hampshire (other than government employees) earning 0.5% less money.
The same bill passed the Republican House last year but failed in the Republican Senate. Now that the Democrats have a large majority in the House, it is expected to pass by a massive margin.
Keep in mind that the federal income tax was initially passed as a minuscule, negligible tax rate. The federal income tax has since grown to over 30% for many Americans. Once this bill creates a new ‘Family Medical Leave Insurance’ program and a new tax to fund it, New Hampshire will have its own income tax…..which could certainly grow as quickly as its federal counterpart did.
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