January 16th, 2017

Moments after the previous message regarding HB 1130, I was alerted to the fact that Governor Doug Burgum is not hiding his support for "The Nursing Home Extraction Tax".

He sent out a press release late today saying point-blank it is part of his budget plans. Here is the link to the press release.

January 16th, 2017

I did not have a chance to testify on HB 1130 "The Nursing Home Extraction Tax" due to a scheduling conflict with HB 1162 (The "Free Market Protection Act") being heard at the same time.

I did overhear OMB Director Pam Sharp tell the committee that Governor Doug Burgum supports this assessment because it came from the Long Term Care Association. (I heard this with my own ears standing in the doorway of the committee room, and I could not believe it.)

The basic premise behind assessing nursing homes based on on-Medicaid beds to subsidize the Medicaid-paying beds is beyond bad policy, it is immoral.

Like all taxes, any assessment on a nursing home for specific residents will be passed along to those residents. Businesses do not simply absorb those costs, consumers always pay the tax levy.

This concept should be rejected without consideration.

There will be an ever-growing need to replace federal money that the state and citizens have grown accustom to. This has been known for many years, and the failure to address the impending needs and then addressing those needs is essentially fiduciary neglect.

North Dakota must find better ways to make up these shortfall, and stop looking to people who will never earn another nickel of earned income in their lives.

This is a bad bill and a bad idea.

If the state needs more money for Medicaid services, take it out of existing oil tax revenue.

Taxing senior citizens into bankruptcy should not be acceptable to North Dakota's lawmakers or Governor Burgum.

In addition to contacting you legislators, please call Governor Burgum's office and tell him not to support higher taxes on senior citizens, and others, living nursing homes.

The Governor's Office Number is (701)-328-2200.

Please continue to email the members of the committee. Here are their email addresses, simply copy and paste the list into your email program to send messages directly:

rweisz@nd.gov, kmrohr@nd.gov, bertanderson@nd.gov, pkanderson@nd.gov, cdamschen@nd.gov, bdevlin@nd.gov, dhkiefert@nd.gov, amcwilliams@nd.gov, tkporter@nd.gov, mschneider@nd.gov, jayseibel@nd.gov, kskroch@nd.gov, gwestlind@nd.gov

And contact your own legislator by clicking here.

Dustin Gawrylow, Managing Director

North Dakota Watchdog Network

Click here to see the members of this committee.

If you would like to email members of this committee directly, here are their email addresses, simply copy and paste the list into your email program to send messages directly:

rweisz@nd.gov, kmrohr@nd.gov, bertanderson@nd.gov, pkanderson@nd.gov, cdamschen@nd.gov, bdevlin@nd.gov, dhkiefert@nd.gov, amcwilliams@nd.gov, tkporter@nd.gov, mschneider@nd.gov, jayseibel@nd.gov, kskroch@nd.gov, gwestlind@nd.gov

January 6th, 2017

Bill essentially merges the worst parts of ObamaCare and the Estate Tax

In what may be the worst proposed legislation in my 5 legislative sessions, House Bill 1130 proposed by the Appropriations Committee at the request of the Office of Management and Budget would create a tax on nursing home beds filled by non-Medicaid covered residents as a way of filling the gap left by reduced federal funding.

This bill is even worse than the 2013 effort by House Republicans to create a Water Extraction Tax out of thin air.

At least that tax was on businesses making profit, this tax is on people sleeping in nursing homes. And the only way out of the tax is to die, or spend all your money and get covered by Medicaid.

This is basically ObamaCare for old people paid by other older people that might have some money saved to give their kids or grandkids as an inheritance.

House Bill 1130, if passed in its current form and approved by the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, would require nursing facilities to pay the state’s Tax Commissioner an “assessment” for their “non-medicare bed days” every quarter. If nursing homes do not comply, they’ll get hit with a “penalty” of five percent of the assessment due plus one percent interest. The money would go into a new account in the Treasurer’s office and only be used for long-term care in the future.

In other words, people who are in a nursing home and pay out-of-pocket will likely be “assessed” an amount to pay for the care of others in nursing homes on Medicaid. You heard that right, the state is proposing to raise money from senior citizens to pay for services.

This is a bill that must be stopped in its tracks.

Legislators have been told for the last 5 sessions that federal money would start to dry up. They spent the oil surplus money and have very little to show for it, now to sold the problem of relying on federal dollars too long they are going to force senior citizens with money to go broke and leave nothing to their family or pay a tax?

This is sponsored by Republicans that rail against the Estate Death Tax and rail against ObamaCare - but then use the same redistribution of wealth approach Obama would tax.

This bill is on the top of the Watchdog list in 2017 that needs to be defeated.

Contact your legislators today to tell them to say NO to HB 1130 unless it is completely changes. Not little changes, completely changed.

Then sign our petition so that we can take it to the committee and show legislators that the public will not allow this sort of approach.