BILL AIMS TO LOWER TAX ON INSURANCE : TAX RELIEF SOUGHT FOR HEALTH COVERAGE.Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Daily News Staff Writer Aiming to encourage small businesses to provide medical coverage for their workers, Assemblyman as·sem·bly·man n. A man who is a member of a legislative assembly. assemblyman Noun pl -men a member of a legislative assembly Noun 1. George Runner George C. Runner, Jr. (born March 25 1952 in Scotia, New York) is a Republican California State Senator, who represents the 17th Senate District, which includes portions of Los Angeles County, San Bernardino County and Ventura County. has introduced a bill that would boost the state income tax deduction Tax deduction An expense that a taxpayer is allowed to deduct from taxable income. tax deduction See deduction. for health insurance costs. Runner proposed the bill - which covers self-employed individuals and small businesses with 100 or fewer employees - after talking with small-business owners about the problems they face, his chief of staff said. The Palmdale Republican's district covers the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys The Santa Clarita Valley is the valley of the Santa Clara River in Southern California. It stretches through Los Angeles County and Ventura County. Its main population center is the city of Santa Clarita. The valley was part of the 48,612-acre (19,672. . ``One of the biggest points made was . . . `I can't generate enough money to provide health insurance,' '' said Runner chief of staff Rick Van Nieuwberg. The measure, Assembly Bill 230, would make state tax law conform with federal tax law, which over the next several years is increasing the amount of health insurance costs that can be deducted from a business's taxable income Under the federal tax law, gross income reduced by adjustments and allowable deductions. It is the income against which tax rates are applied to compute an individual or entity's tax liability. The essence of taxable income is the accrual of some gain, profit, or benefit to a taxpayer. . At present, California law California Law consists of 29 codes, covering various subject areas, the State Constitution and Statutes. See also
Runner's bill would match those increases for state income taxes, capping the deduction like federal law at 80 percent in 2006. ``This bill allows those that are self-employed to afford health insurance and also provides an incentive for small-business owners to offer health insurance to their employees,'' Runner said. Introduced Thursday, Runner's bill is expected to go first to the Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee. Staffers there said they had not yet been assigned the measure and had done no analysis on what it might cost the state treasury. Small businesses are at a disadvantage compared to larger ones in buying health insurance because the cost for each employee is greater when there are fewer workers, Van Nieuwberg said. ``Large corporations either self-insure or they are able to get a lot of discounts because of the amount of members,'' said Shirley Knight, assistant state director for the National Federation of Independent Business The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) is a lobbying organization with offices in Washington, D.C. USA, and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB claims a membership base in excess of 600,000. . A survey done by the federation three or four years ago of its 48,000 California members found that 32 percent did not offer health insurance, Knight said. ``The primary reason they did not offer it, and we've done several surveys on this issue, is basically the cost,'' she said. In 1993, the organization supported legislation that created a health-insurance pool so that businesses with 50 or fewer employees could get the same discounts as larger ones, she said. The federation plans another survey to get an updated report on how many of its members offer health insurance. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: (color in Verb 1. color in - add color to; "The child colored the drawings"; "Fall colored the trees"; "colorize black and white film" color, colorise, colorize, colour in, colourise, colourize, colour AV and SAC Sac: see Sac and Fox. SAC - 1. An early system on the Datatron 200 series. [Listed in CACM 2(5):16 (May 1959)]. editions only) George Runner Seeks relief for small business |
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