The Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce is proud to introduce a brand new e-publication to our members and state legislators throughout Greater Nashua. This new e-publication, known as The Advocate, is a new tool designed in partnership with the law firm Devine Millimet & Branch, and the media agency ActiveEdge, and is intended to provide our Chamber members and our regional legislators a weekly update concerning our Chamber’s efforts to promote a business-friendly agenda in Concord.

Our Chamber of Commerce has always had a strong government relations department, thanks to Devine Millimet & Branch and thanks to the large number of our members who volunteer their time as members of our Chamber’s State Advocacy Committee. This new e-publication provides all of our members an opportunity to witness the hard work and results achieved by our Chamber and government relations team on your behalf.

Starting with this email, you will receive this new publication in your inbox every Friday afternoon. This publication will re-cap the major legislative activities of that week, preview major issues coming up for hearings in the next week, and highlight one or two major issues on which the Chamber is actively working and that may require action by our Chamber members.

Each publication will be divided into two sections. One section is written and contributed by Devine Millimet & Branch, and re-caps the major issues of the week. The other section is written by the Chamber President and will highlight a major issue on which the Chamber is directly involved and may need assistance from Chamber members (the Chamber section will start appearing in next week’s issue).

Please note that there are several links along the right side of this e-publication. These links will be provided every week, and will help you if you need to contact a particular legislator about an issue or if you just want to read the latest happenings in state politics as published in that week’s Telegraph or Union Leader.

We hope you will benefit from this new tool, provided to you as a benefit of your membership in our Chamber of Commerce or as one of our regional legislators. If you ever have any questions about issues discussed in this e-publication, please feel free to email or call us at the Chamber office: cwilliams@nashuachamber.com. Please enjoy reading today’s issue, which summarizes several important issues being discussed this past week that we feel impact a large number of our business members in southern New Hampshire.

Re-Cap of this week’s Issues

Welcome to 2008!!! Say goodbye to any hopes that New Hampshire businesses can sleep soundly in a non-budget year. The first full week of legislative hearings for 2008 saw a raft of bills which were aimed at the way New Hampshire businesses do their job. The following is a partial list of business-related issues that received hearings this past week:

Identity Theft

Both HB 1531 and HB 1534 had hearings this week before the House Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Nashua’s Representative David Cote. HB 1534 creates a cause of action against any individual who has “misused” the social security number of another to gain employment , as well as any employer who relies on documentation and “knows or should have known” that it was false, or fails to make “a reasonable effort to resolve any discrepancy’ on a failed Social Security Administration verification. While the bill does provide an affirmative defense to an employer who makes a “reasonable effort to resolve a discrepancy”, those opposing the bill, including the Chamber, remain concerned with the uncertainties and unnecessary burden the measure creates. While proponents attempted to minimize concerns by pointing out that employers could shield themselves from liability simply by relying on “E-verify”. The NH Immigration Project, opposing the legislation, stated that the legislation places an unnecessary burden on employers, and more importantly, employers cannot rely on “no match or failed verification letters” from the Social Security Administration with any confidence as the information is often incorrect. The Chamber also opposed HB 1531, which, like HB1534 creates a new cause of action for misuse of a social security number for “identification purposes,” including for purpose of employment. Like HB 1534, this bill exposes any employer who fails to verify an employee’s ID prior to employment, or fails to “make a reasonable effort” to resolve a discrepancy when given notice by the Social Security Administration , to $5000 in damages as well as costs and attorney’s fees. Proponents have not yet demonstrated that identity theft or misuse of social security numbers is of such significance in New Hampshire that these burdensome measures are either practical or necessary.

“At will” Employment

The Chamber opposed HB 1515, which prohibits “at will” employment and creates a database of all employee terminations. The first issue with this legislation is that it states “no employer, private or public, shall terminate an employee without just cause.” What is the definition of “just cause”? The Department of Employment Security testified this bill will create a new bureaucracy to collect the information and to administer the database if the legislation passes. Filing a report for “just cause” could be problematic for the employee as well as the employer. What is the need for this legislation? No one could articulate the real purpose of this database. The Chamber will continue to oppose this legislation.

Solid Waste and Litter Reduction

The House will take up action on HB 503-FN, a bill retained last session. In November, the House Environment & Agriculture Committee rather quietly amended the bill to provide a “one-cent per beverage container charge” to be levied at the wholesale level for the purpose of funding solid waste management programs through the Department of Environmental Services. While the bill specifically exempts milk, wine, and liquor from its provisions, it is likely to raise considerable objection on the House floor as it is a new tax on orange juice, bottled water, sodas and more. The House floor vote will be on January 16th.

This week, on a related topic, the House Environment and Agriculture Committee heard HB 1621, sponsored by Rep. Betty Hall of Brookline. The bill would establish a $.05 refund value for beverage containers redeemed at specified redemption centers. “Beverage container” is defined as “individual, separate bottle, can, or jar, which has been sealed by a manufacturer and contains a beverage, and is made of glass, non-aluminum metal or plastic.” When purchasing beverages, retailers would be obligated to deposit the refund value of the beverage container with the distributor, who would then pay that amount, minus an administrative cost of 1%, to the Department of Agriculture, which would utilize the funds to administer both a beverage container litter reduction fund (“BCLR Fund”) and an unredeemed beverage container deposit account (“UBCD”). The bill is accompanied by a complex fiscal note outlining financial projections of both the Department of Environmental Services and the Department of Agriculture.

In introducing the bill at hearing, Rep. Hall testified that she had been promoting various pieces of bottle legislation for thirty years and that this particular measure grew out of environmental concerns of young people with whom she worked last summer in the Milford area. She conceded that the bill needed work and indicated that if the fortunes of HB 503 were favorable she would be agreeable to having HB1651 fall by the wayside.

The hearing drew a long roster of opponents to the bill. Along with the Chamber, opponents included The New Hampshire Grocers’ Association, The New Hampshire Distributors and the New Hampshire Beverage Association. An economist testifying for the latter association indicated that it was unrealistic to expect that the bill would create a “cash cow” for the state. He pointed to Maine’s program on which the bill seems to be modeled where retained revenues for unredeemed bottles just cover the cost for the additional state employees necessary to administer the program. He also stressed that since the advent of bottle bills, states and governmental entities have developed alternative and more effective methods, such as curbside programs, to encourage recycling. His observation that such programs might well be undermined by a bottle bill seemed to resonate.

Do Not Deliver Mail

This is the mail version of the do-not-call registry bill. The support for this legislation came from environmentalists who are concerned about local landfills. But they were far outnumbered by opponents of the measure, who packed a double hearing room in the Legislative Office Building. The Chamber joined about a dozen entities in urging that the bill be killed. Some of the most compelling testimony came from the U.S. Postal Service. Since bulk mail subsidizes the USPS first class letter service, the post office as we know it would be hugely impacted if this type of legislation were to be passed nationally.

Due to the number of people looking to testify, the hearing was continued to January 24.

J. Christopher Williams
President & CEO
Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce
151 Main St.
Nashua, NH 03060
Phone: 603.881.8333
Fax: 603.881.7323