Week Fifteen - May 1, 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

This was a week where seat belts, gay marriage, medical marijuana, transgender equality and the death penalty received prime media and legislative attention. However, for the business community, much more was very quietly happening.

SB 40: WARN, WARN, WARN

The House Committee on Labor, Industrial and Rehabilitative Services held a packed public hearing this past Tuesday on SB 40, the bill that would create a state version of the federal WARN Act but with stricter standards. The Committee received testimony from several witnesses including your Chamber and a couple of fellow Chamber members. The Chamber stated once again that it supports a state WARN law, but SB 40, as amended by the Senate, fails to take into consideration some significant impacts upon existing businesses in our state as well as businesses seeking to relocate and expand in New Hampshire. The Department of Labor, labor unions, individuals, other chambers, and other businesses also provided testimony on the bill. Following more than three hours of testimony, Committee Chairman Jeff Goley announced that SB 40 would be referred to a subcommittee for further consideration and recommendation. The members of the subcommittee are Rep. Mary Gorman (D-Nashua), Rep. Sara Kelly (D-Chichester), and Rep. Herbert Richardson (R-Lancaster). The subcommittee has not yet set a hearing date.

Chamber members Charlie Hall (president of J. Lawrence Hall) and Mike L’Ecuyer (president of Bellwether Community Credit Union) graciously volunteered 4 hours of their day to attend the hearing and speak to the concerns that businesses have with this bill. Charlie Hall represented the concerns of companies that have 75 or more employees, stating that this bill could force employers at midsize companies to preemptively announce layoffs even if there was only a small chance that those layoffs would actually happen, just to avoid the risk of violating this unnecessarily restrictive law. Such an action would impact company morale, and cause the best employees to start seeking employment elsewhere while simultaneously impacting the company’s reputation within its industry circles and with its lenders and suppliers.

Mike L’Ecuyer used his expertise in the lending world to lay out the consequences that such an action by an employer would have on that company’s ability to get lending from financial institutions, the impact on that company’s current loans, and the impact on that company’s lines of credit with various other institutions with whom it was doing business at the time. Mike painted a very stark picture of the consequences this bill could have on a company’s financial health, and its ability to maintain good access to capital despite its ability to eventually avoid announced layoffs.

Both Charlie and Mike represented the interests of businesses very admirably, and are to be commended for their willingness to speak frankly with the legislators as actual business managers who would be directly impacted by this legislation.

Charlie and Mike, our hat is off to you!

SB 5: Massachusetts Sales Tax In New Hampshire

On Tuesday, the House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee held a hearing on SB 5, prohibiting retailers from disclosing private consumer information to foreign states in connection with the collection of certain sales and use taxes. This is Governor Lynch and the State of NH's legislative response to the Town Fair Tire case in Massachusetts.

There was no opposition to the bill, at least in New Hampshire. The Retail Merchants Association, the NH Attorney General's Office, the NH Advantage Coalition, your Chamber and other business groups supported the bill.

Senator Hassan, the prime sponsor, testified about the commerce clause and privacy of consumer information issues created by this Massachusetts case. The legislators had many questions regarding NH retailers’ experiences with the Department of Revenue in Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine. There were several stories of NH retailers that have been intimidated by Massachusetts revenue officials.

A subcommittee for SB 5 is scheduled in order to amend the bill to make it stronger for New Hampshire. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is scheduled to take up the Town Fair Tire case next week, on May 7th. It should be very interesting how they interpret the Commerce clause and consumer privacy issues.

SB 204: Skillsoft Victory

SB 204, the legislation the Chamber testified on for Skillsoft Company, passed the House with language that would greatly help Skillsoft’s ability to continue existing and operating in New Hampshire. The new language will add companies that license software to the list of entities excluded from the definition of post-secondary career schools that was amended last session. This change was requested on behalf of Skillsoft Company, an employer of 240 in Nashua. The company licenses software to businesses and provides corporate training on the use of that software. The bill now allows the software licenser to tailor training programs to meet the needs of the licensee, which will allow this valuable employer to stay in the Nashua area.

Skillsoft, we’re glad you’re here and we’re glad this legislation can help us keep you here!

Coming Up Next Week

SB 65: In-Lieu Fees Expanded to Private Projects
The House Resource Committee has passed SB 65 with an amendment. The bill expands in-lieu fee payments for unavoidable impacts to streams and rivers in construction to private as well as public projects, and removes restrictions on acreage of eligible projects. This is a good step forward. The full House will vote on this bill next week.

HB 675: Beverage Container Fees
The Environment Committee has begun work on retained bill HB 675, which requires a refundable deposit on beverage containers. They also are beginning to work on HB 283, which creates a solid waste management fund and assesses a beverage container fee. We will keep an eye on these two.

SB 182: Business Tax Credits
SB 182, the bill to review all business tax credits, will be voted on by the Ways and Means Committee. There is too much scuttle butt going on about business taxes or credits to make us comfortable at the moment. The Senate is not happy with the House new capital gains or estate taxes. No one is quite sure about the prospects of gambling so getting rid of some of the current business credits is a concern.

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