Wal-Mart Tax Fizzle The AFL-CIO's favorite new tax is a flop just about everywhere.
Sunday, July 9, 2006 12:01 a.m. EDT
For anyone keeping score, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has been striking out in a surprising number of state capitals. Mr. Sweeney launched a campaign in 33 states several months ago to force Wal-Mart and other retailers either to spend more on health care or pay more in taxes. His legislation was intended as a first step in mandating employer-provided health care, and his campaign began as Maryland enacted the first "Wal-Mart tax."
Well, the early results are in, and the Sweeney tax has been a political flop. Not a single state has followed Maryland's lead, even liberal Rhode Island. In 26 states from Maine to New Mexico, so-called "fair share" legislation has either stalled or, in the case of Kansas, Louisiana and Missouri, been withdrawn. With many state legislatures wrapping up their work or already adjourned for the year, it's clear the anti-Wal-Mart groundswell isn't coming.
New York was one of the last holdouts, and Long Island's Suffolk County has enacted its own version of the law. But for a state in which unions enjoy broad political influence, the bill found few friends in Albany and failed. Even Attorney General Eliot Spitzer opposed it, telling the New York Post that the Wal-Mart bill is not the "comprehensive reform" of health care the state needs. A candidate for Governor such as Mr. Spitzer has to worry about job creation, especially in a state from which young people and jobs are both fleeing.