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Week Thirteen - April 17, 2009
This electronic publication, known as The Advocate,
is brought to you each Friday by your Greater Nashua Chamber of
Commerce, in partnership with our friends at Devine Millimet &
Branch, and ActiveEdge. Please use this piece to review what has
happened in Concord this past week, read about our Chamber's lobbying
efforts relating to those activities, and preview what we are
doing on behalf of our Chamber members in the coming week.
This Week’s
Update - Just Another Week In Concord
To give you a flavor of what the Capital City is like these days,
Wednesday began with competing rallies in front of the State House
by opponents and advocates of the same-sex marriage bill, who
then proceeded inside the State House to an overflow Representative’s
Hall for a hearing on that bill. Those two groups then turned
the State House plaza over to the tax tea party, a well-attended
affair by advocates for less tax and less government. While the
tea party was going on, a group of state employees picketed on
the sidewalk in front of the State House for restoration of jobs
and more benefits. After a full day of competing rallies and hearings,
the Senate Finance Committee held a packed house hearing on the
budget in Concord and then in Manchester the next night. Next
week, things should not let up at all, with the seatbelt bill
being heard on Monday morning to a full Representatives Hall and
the “bathroom bill” receiving a hearing on Thursday.
This is the backdrop to all of the business and budget measures
that are being considered, and the level of unrest and dispute
is reaching a point that has seldom been seen over the past few
decades in Concord. Here is a look back at some of the bills the
Chamber was following this week.
This
Week's Trips by Chamber President to Concord
SB 204: Your Chamber President, Chris Williams,
made a trip to Concord as did other Nashua folks, to support an
amendment to SB 204 in support of local employer Skillsoft. Chris
testified that in 2008 a law was passed that was intended to simply
redefine which institutions and agencies in New Hampshire can
be defined as postsecondary career schools. In practicality it
has actually negatively impacted a number of small and large business
operations across our state who are in the business of providing
e-learning and performance enhancing solutions to corporations.
Skillsoft happens to be the largest example of a business operation
inadvertently and significantly impacted. Skillsoft is one of
Nashua's largest and best businesses, employing well over 200
people with solid, good-paying jobs that in turn support our regional
economy.
Skillsoft is not a postsecondary career school; however, the broad
swath painted by legislation last session has unintentionally
placed Skillsoft into a disadvantageous new category that results
in them paying ridiculously exorbitant fees to Concord.
Skillsoft, like many of our members, is simply too good and too
profitable of a company within the State of New Hampshire. The
Chamber cannot stand by and watch well-intentioned legislation
have a negative impact on good companies in our region.
SB 40, the piercing the corporate veil legislation
having to do with notification of mass layoffs, continues to be
an issue. Chris worked with BAE Systems to convene a meeting including
the BIA, the Manchester Chamber and a few others, with the Governor’s
Staff this week to go over the remaining issues the business community
has with SB 40. They include:
- Definition of employer. The current language takes in all
parent companies for liability exposure.
- Lowering the threshold for compliance from 100 employees (Federal
WARN) to 75 employees.
- Severe penalties.
Moving
Forward
SB 182: It looks as if SB 182, which creates
a committee to study all state business tax credits, will move
quickly through the House Ways and Means Committee. The message
from the Senate was: before the state creates any more business
incentives through tax credits, the state needs to access the
current credits, see if they are even being used, analyze their
effectiveness and the cost to the state verses the increased revenue
to the state due to the business incentives. Among the credits
to be reviewed will be:
- CDFA (Community Development Finance Authority) credit
- Economic Revitalization Zone Credit (CROP)
- R&D Credit
- NOL (Net Operating Loss) credit against BET/BPT
- BET credit against BPT
- BPT credit for insurance taxes
We can only hope this study will enlighten the legislature to
the need for business incentives to retain and attract business.
Next
Week
Coming up next week are a number of pieces of legislation the
Chamber will be watching.
HB 240: The Labor Department strikes again.
We guess they had so much success with SB 40 in the Senate, they
decided to go for another roll of the dice. The Department has
offered a non-germane amendment to HB 240 in the definition section
of the employment laws dealing with prima facie evidence. The
law states that the criteria have been met by a written agreement.
The current language states that an employer can be fined if the
written agreement “was intended to” misrepresent the
relationship between the employer and employee. The amendment
deletes the “was intended to” and adds language that
says if the “Commissioner finds that the employer in any
other way misrepresented the relationship...” a civil penalty
may ensue. This looks like a revenue-raising amendment favoring
the State to us. It also creates liability on the employer who
uses independent contractors. We will testify in opposition to
this amendment.
On the House Labor Committee we will pay particular attention
to:
SB 89, which grants immunity from liability
to a recipient of unemployment benefits, if the Department of
Employment Security pays unemployment benefits to the employee
when they were not entitled to those benefits. The employer in
such cases is made whole. The employer's account would not be
charged for the payments once it is determined the mistake was
not the employer's.
SB 144, which allows the Unemployment Trust
Fund to pay for claims that may arise from an employee being voluntarily
discharged, usually due to a medical condition. The legislation
would have the unemployment benefits paid out of the Trust Fund,
not directly by the employer.
SB 170, creates a self-employment assistance
program to pay unemployment benefits to unemployed persons who
are attempting to create a new business. Currently, an unemployed
person can only receive unemployment benefits if they are looking
for a job. If one commits to the conditions of the self-employment
assistance program, then one can receive a self-employment assistance
allowance while getting help starting a business. The benefits
are charged to the Unemployment Trust Fund and not the former
employer.
These bills are moving forward at the same time the Governor
is summonsing Chamber presidents to Concord to discuss the Unemployment
Trust Fund. Stay tuned for the outcome of that conversation next
week.
We will also watch the House Environment Committee as it tackles
two retained bills.
SB 283, which creates a solid waste management
fund and assesses a beverage container fee.
HB 675, which requires a refundable deposit
on beverage containers.
Acknowledgements
This weekly update is made possible by the generous support of
Devine Millimet
& Branch, one of the state’s top law firms and our
Chamber’s contracted representative in Concord. If your
business has a legislative or local issue that needs strategic
consulting and attention, they are a valuable resource that can
help navigate you through both local and state processes.
This weekly update is designed and maintained by our friends
at ActiveEdge,
and we thank them for their help in delivering this piece to your
inbox every Friday!
If you have questions about this update, or comments to share
with us about other issues in Concord, please email Chris Williams
at cwilliams@nashuachamber.com.
We want to be sure we're representing you to the best of our ability,
so do not hesitate to reach out to us!
J.
Christopher Williams
President & CEO
Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce
151 Main St.
Nashua, NH 03060
Phone: 603.881.8333
Fax: 603.881.7323
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