Small businesses and their employees can receive help through the Insurance Partnership to reduce the cost of providing and obtaining health insurance. The program is designed to ensure that small businesses, who provide 58% of the jobs in our labor market, are able to give their lower paid employees the opportunity to have affordable health insurance without creating a financial hardship on these same employees.

Employers with 50 or fewer workers, who offer or who want to offer comprehensive health insurance to their employees and who contribute at least half of the cost of the insurance purchased by the qualified employee are eligible can participate in the Insurance Partnership Program. The Program will reimburse small businesses up to $1,000 per year toward health-insurance costs for each qualified and income-eligible employee. The amount of reimbursement depends on the tier of coverage (individual, couple, family or single-head of household) chosen by the employee.

In addition to the direct support to small businesses for their portion of the cost of the insurance for qualified employee, the Partnership can help your employees also. Qualified employees can get help paying for their share of the health insurance premium through the Partnership. The employee must meet the income standards, and if qualified, in most cases, a currently uninsured employee’s costs for health insurance can be significantly reduced to as little as $12 to $160 per month - the Insurance Partnership pays the balance. EMPLOYEES CANNOT BE CURRENTLY ENROLLED IN THE COMPANY HEALTH PLAN TO APPLY, AS THIS PROGRAM IS FOR UNINSURED EMPLOYEES. (The Chamber is speaking with our legislative delegation regarding this change in the IPP, made as part of the new Health Care Reform Legislation in 2006. We believe it is unfair to those lower paid, long time workers who have been doing the responsible thing by purchasing health insurance to not have the opportunity to benefit from this program, while other longer term employees who did not purchase insurance may benefit from this program.)

Members of the Chamber staff are available to speak with your company more about the benefits and requirements of this program. For more information regarding the Insurance Partnership Program or to schedule a presentation on this valuable program please contact the Greater Gardner Chamber of Commerce at (978) 632-1780.

Governor Romney signed into law Chapter 205 of the Acts of 2006 on August 2nd, a law that will streamline and expedite the process for residential, commercial and industrial development projects throughout the Commonwealth. This law makes some significant and beneficial changes to the original Expedited Permitting Act, which was first enacted in 2004.

The new statute creates provides technical assistance and financial resources for communities and for businesses to enhance permitting and other economic activities, and allows communities to designate specific development sites as eligible for an expedited local permitting process with a timeframe of 180 days, instead of the prevailing two-year average. Smaller developments, from 50,000 square feet, will now be eligible for expedited permitting as well.

The new law also creates a Massachusetts Permit Regulatory Office within the Executive Office of Economic Development, let by a Permit Ombudsmen who will serve as the primary state contact for new and expanding businesses dealing with permitting issues. A permitting specialist will be assigned to each of the five regional offices of the Massachusetts Development Finance Agency (MassDevelopment) to assist businesses as they move through the permitting process.

The statute also creates a $100 million bond for local infrastructure to accommodate development projects and a new state government "sales force" was formed to encourage job growth. The act also creates a new permit review session of the state’s land court to prevent frivolous use of the legal system to delay development projects.

Although Governor Romney vetoed legislation raising the Massachusetts minium wage, the Massachusetts House and Senate unanimously overrode the Governor’s veto on the final day of formal sessions. The new rate, which goes into effect on January 1, 2007, will raise the state’s minimum wage from the current rate of $6.75 to $7.50 on January 1, 2007, and on January 1, 2008, the rate will increase to $8.00. The law only addresses changes to the minimum wage, and makes no changes to the current tip credit.

The Chamber worked tirelessly to defeat proposed legislation which would have tied future increases in the state’s minimum wage to the consumer price index, and these proposals were rejected and not included in the final bill passed by the House and Senate.

Members are reminded to not only adjust wages but update their mandatory posters reflecting the increases. Copies of the mandatory posters may be obtained from the Greater Gardner Chamber.