If you weren’t aware of it before, you are now a resident of what soon can be officially dubbed The Soviet State of California!

Our inestimable state Legislature has decided to triple down on Obamacare and is proposing legislation that will fine employers $6,000, or 110 percent of annual insurance costs, per full-time employee who ends up on Medi-Cal. The legislation is supposedly targeted on “large” employers.

However, if you think the recent scandal of the IRS pursuit of so-called conservative organizations was scary, or the U.S. Justice Department subpoena of Associated Press phones and emails, just wait until the California Franchise Tax Board comes after you with the full force of the state attorney general, should Timothy Gomez’s AB 880 pass and obtain Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature. AB 880 is now headed for the state Senate and is an emergency bill (i.e., it becomes effective 30 days after the governor’s signature).

Supporters of this legislation are a list of the usual suspects: unions, consumer groups and surprisingly doctors (but then you have to stop and recall how regimented this industry has become).

The reasoning behind this legislation is that all large employers are guilty, prior to the fact, of trying to avoid the provision of health insurance to their employees. This totally ignores two fundamental principles that presently exist in this country: 1) innocent until proven guilty with evidence, and 2) total control of employer operation by government.

When further considering the reasoning behind AB 880, take careful note that virtually nothing is expressed about the terrible consequences and costs that Obamacare is already generating; the thousands of jobs that have followed employers out of the state over the past six to eight years; and the thousands of residential dwellers who have voted with their feet and moved to friendlier states where they can keep more of the money they earn. Very few have voiced what they anticipate to be a devastating impact on all still existing major employers throughout the state, with the additional loss of untold jobs and employment.

However, AB 880 is not the only gorilla in the state’s living room! There are presently more than 30 different pieces of legislation, all aimed at the health-care industry, as the full implementation of Obamacare looms on the horizon of 2014. Virtually all of these pieces of legislation will levy more burdensome rules, regulations and costs statewide. Just guess who’s going to pay when all of these vaunted policies and programs come due and the taxpayer is presented with the bill of further subsidizing the subsidy.

Nothing has been said about the increased burden that will be placed on these entitlement programs due to the influx of additional immigrants, legal or not. Nothing has been said about the cost estimates on employers of existing and future low-skilled workers presently employed who end up on Medi-Cal. Present estimates project some 130,000 workers who could be Medi-Cal recipients in the near future. There are no estimates for yearly horizons. Yet Mr. Gomez and others are assuming an unlimited source of funding not only from these same large employers (who are going to hang around California forever?), but also the taxpaying public.

As yet, no concern has been expressed about the fact that the No. 2 highest taxing state may soon pass the No. 1 highest taxing state of New York. Two states with the worst employment figures and the highest costs anywhere in the USA.

Not only are taxpayers faced with the questionable institution of the Legislature in Sacramento, earthquakes and fires, but that horrible sound that we’re all beginning to hear very loudly is the draining of resources down the massive sinkhole of bureaucratic California!

(The moving company I just called told me they won’t answer any more calls as they’re swamped with orders and all their vans are reserved.)

Janice Evans, president
Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association