(Editor’s Note: Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable, issued the following statement today regarding the State Senate’s passage of SB 562 (Lara / Atkins), the single-payer healthcare bill, which will cost $400 billion per year to implement)

“There is no realistic funding mechanism to support SB562, especially given all the existing spending obligations the state must honor, including education, transportation and infrastructure. Our debt liabilities are more than $250 billion, we are the highest taxed state in the nation and too many Californians continue to struggle daily with how to make ends meet. 

“This short-sighted bill also doesn’t take in to account the fact that health care is the fastest growing sector of our economy. Instituting a massive new regulatory scheme in the health care sector will have a devastating impact on job growth and sends a definitive signal to businesses in California that a majority in this Legislature is committed to regulating every aspect of our economy as a cornerstone of their progressive agenda. But let’s be clear: the tax increases needed to implement this progressive agenda will only result in killing jobs and progressively bankrupting California.”