Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Should Religions Organizations Be Forcesd To Pay Workman's Comp?

There is a case in the Montana Supreme Court in which the state of Montana is trying to force members of the Hutterite religion to pay a workman's compensation tax.
From the Havre Daily News: Religious colonies of Hutterites in rural Montana are fighting the state's attempts to impose a labor law backed by businesses that complain they can't outbid the low cost of the communal workers.
The Hutterites are Protestants similar to the Amish and Mennonites who live a life centered on their religion, but unlike the others, Hutterites live in German-speaking communes scattered across northern U.S. states and Canada.
They don't pay wages, don't vote and don't enlist in the military. They make their own clothes, produce their own food and construct their own buildings.
"Their core belief is that they have no property. All the property and labor they have, they contribute to the colony," Ron Nelson, an attorney for the Big Sky Colony, told the Montana Supreme Court.
The state's high court on Wednesday heard arguments by the colony and the state on whether Montana's requirement that employers carry workers' compensation insurance can be expanded to religious organizations. A state judge has already ruled the 2009 law expanding the workers' compensation law to force the Hutterites to pay for the insurance violated their right to freely exercise their religion.
The state is asking the high court to reverse that decision, arguing the new law deals only with commercial activities and stays out of the Hutterites religious affairs.
The Hutterites' argument that everything they do is tied to their religion cannot exempt them from regulation when they voluntarily enter into an outside commercial activity, assistant Attorney General Stuart Segrest said.
"They're not allowed to become a law unto themselves," Segrest said.
http://www.havredailynews.com/news/story-605188.html
The law in question is a Democrat and the person responsible for the law says this:
Those businesses backed the 2009 expansion of Montana's workers' compensation law. The bill's sponsor, state Rep. Chuck Hunter, acknowledged then that the change targeted the Hutterites in particular and the need to create "a fair playing field" for other businesses that must pay for insurance.
"It's just frustrating for a private business that has to pay various taxes and workers' comp insurance to find themselves undercut competitively by an entity that is not subject to those same requirements," said Cary Hegreberg, executive director of the Montana Contractors' Association.
And the Hutterites counter with this: 
Hutterites don't need protection against lost wages because they don't get wages, the colony argues. Colonies don't need liability protection because they don't make claims — there has never been a workers' compensation claim asserted by a Hutterite.
But the Hutterites are an easy target for discrimination because they look, dress, talk and live differently than anyone else in Montana, the colony's attorneys argued.
When I lived in Montana, I got to know some Hutterites and went to their Colony to visit several times.  They are a lot like the Amish, with the one big difference is that they believe in modern technology.  They will buy the biggest tractors and combines with cash.  They drive around town in their red and white pick up trucks.  They also have big farms that raise crops and livestock and poultry. 
However, I have a big problem with big government coming to a religious organization and single them out to pay a tax and the Hutterites do not get any benefits from the tax.
It would be right to impose a tax if there was a benefit to the Hutterites, but the Hutterites don't like government being in their lives, if it can be helped.  They don't pay Social Security taxes because they don't collect Social Security, so why should they pay Workman Compensation taxes when they don't use it?
While I have not lived in Montana for sometime, I don't recall them doing much contracrting work outside the Colony, but maybe things have changed.
What I believe this bill really is about is to force the Hutterites to pay for a service they don't want and to subsidize the businesses that already pay in.  Kind of like Obama Care and forcing people to purchase health insurance they don't want.
I hope the Hutterites win this case.

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