The Senate agreed to the title of the bill.
Senator Hertel asked and was granted unanimous consent to make a statement and moved that the statement be printed in the Journal.
The motion prevailed.
Senator Hertel’s statement is as follows:
Madam President, just this morning we saw a report come out that shows inflation is rising at its fastest pace in over three years. Higher costs are crushing families across our communities, but they are also crushing small businesses that employ people all across our state. And so, we need to take action to make sure we’re doing everything we can to reduce costs for individuals, but also these small businesses.
Right now, because of those higher costs and higher premiums on health insurance, small businesses are making very difficult choices to be able to still provide coverage for their employees, some having to decide to take that coverage away altogether. With Senate Bill No. 1011 today, we can take action to reduce premiums for small business owners all across our state as they provide insurance to their employees. What this does is allow them to pool their employees together across multiple different industries, creating larger pools with more individuals to insure to then spread that risk and drive down the premiums. It is a proven way to reduce costs, and it’s something simple we can take action on today that will have meaningful impacts, not only for the small businesses, but for their employees as they will be able to continue to provide this critical health insurance for them.
I ask for my colleagues’ support.
The following bill was read a third time:
Senate Bill No. 1041, entitled
A bill to prohibit excessive pricing for certain lodgings during a declared state of emergency; to provide remedies and penalties; and to provide for the powers and duties of certain state and local governmental officers and entities.
The question being on the passage of the bill,
The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows: