Westchester Gets in on the Act

The Westchester County Board of Legislators held a hearing on the Fair Share for Health Care bill on Tuesday. The testimony was vigorous and strongly in favor. The county legislature is considering a resolution calling on the state legislature to pass the bill (the Suffol County legislature recently passed a similar reso).

To give you a flavor of the support Fair Share has, here's an excerpt from Legislator Michael Kaplowitz's press release:

“It is time to shift the cost of healthcare from the taxpayer to the shareholder,” said Kaplowitz. “Corporate giants such as Wal-Mart should realize that providing healthcare for their employees is simply the cost of doing business.”

County Legislator Thomas J. Abinanti (D-I-WF, Greenburgh), former chair of the County Board’s Health Committee and currently a member of both the Committees on Budget & Appropriations and Family, Health & Human Services, stated that “it should be the responsibility of these big businesses, not the taxpaying public, to bare the cost of health benefits for these workers.”

The WFP's Westchester-Putnam chapter chair, Pat Welsh, testified at the hearing, as did the WFP staff policy director, J.W. Mason.

We're following this closely and expect a vote on the reso soon.