Legislative Advocacy
The Chamber gives you information and a voice concerning key issues and legislative actions that affect your business:
- We keep you informed about the latest local, state and national
issues; - We stay current on topics with our memberships in associations such as the US Chamber, MACCE, and the Massachusetts Council of Chambers;
- We conduct regular meetings and discussions with our legislators
and elected officials to address your concerns; - We provide Legislative Calls to Action;
- We conduct regular Legislative Programs to educate you about important issues and initiatives.
“I have been a participating member of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Greater Gardner Chamber for several years. The information we cover and the national, state and local issues we discuss are consistently pertinent and timely to the work I do. Anyone present who has an opinion on a given topic has the opportunity to be heard and to vote on the stand that the Chamber takes on a particular issue. The discussions are often lively and there is definitely no rubber stamp involved. I believe our group has a significant impact on political decisions that affect us all.”----Roger Myers, BaldwinvilleNursing Home
1. Gas Tax
In probably the most vocal effort, the Chamber opposed the effort to increase the Gas Tax in Massachusetts. With the current tax at approximately $.24 (.239) The proposed increases of almost 40%-55%, depending on the bill, is outrageous, especially with gas prices hovering around $2.89 per gallon. The increase will not only hurt small businesses that rely on transportation for their business, but the hundreds of thousands of workers that commute every day, in an already fragile economy.
The Chamber continues to oppose the proposed increase in the gas tax, especially with the likelihood that, while we have a temporary respite now, fuel prices are likely to rise again over the winter months. Any increase would only hurt businesses and consumers alike.
2. Sales Tax
The Chamber's Legislative Committee and Board of Directors is opposed to a new legislative revenue enhancement (tax increase) that increases the Massachusett's Sales Tax 25% and eliminates the liquor exclusion from the tax in Massachusetts, saying this tax will dramatically change the retail landscape in north Central Massachusetts and certainly the Greater Gardner area. "People are driving across our borders everyday to cut costs, including taxes and bottle deposits in Massachusetts, and we have just increased the reasons to make them shop in NH, and bypassing retailers in Massachusetts," Greater Gardner CEO Michael Ellis said. "With declining sales tax revenue, we can say this well is drying up, so you don't increase the size of the pump. You dig a new well and look for other, more creative revenue sources. I am concerned for the businesses that are keeping what is left of our economy stable, as this increase will not help those retailers that are left in the Greater Gardner area."
In addition to increasing the sales tax in Massachusetts, in a surprising move, the legislature eliminated the exemption of liquor from the sales tax in Massachusetts. While proponents of this tax increase will argue that the new revenues generated will help drive municipal aid and road repairs, the fact remains that our economy is particularly frail and vulnerable. As you are keenly aware, in North Central Massachusetts, and in the Greater Gardner Area in particular, we are experiencing very high unemployment and critical businesses conditions. Without a doubt, for those businesses in border communities, especially those in the liquor retail industry, this move will jeopardize their ability to be viable and sustainable business operations over the long term.
Let’s look at what government intervention has done to retail in North Central Massachusetts. The sales tax already has put Massachusetts businesses at a competitive disadvantage. Additional and egregious luxury taxes on cigarettes have driven Massachusetts consumers across the border in record numbers as the cost of a carton of these items is nearly ½ in our neighboring state as it is here in the Commonwealth. Employment taxes drive large employers to New Hampshire, while Massachusetts continues to lose jobs to its neighbor to the North.
Interestingly enough, while we have seen the dramatic economic effect of the cigarette tax, for example, the health benefits of the tax, similar to the ones now being used for the for the alcohol tax, are sketchy. Massachusetts consumers purchase cigarettes in New Hampshire, while overall “use” rates are being reported as decreasing in our State as a function of purchases. Massachusetts legislators have continually raided the fund to go to general overhead and other projects. In fact, the American Lung Association gave Massachusetts an “A” for cigarette taxation in 2008, but a “C” for adequate cessation programs, and surprisingly an “F” for tobacco prevention and control spending. Indeed, a portion of the new tax on alcohol was proposed to go towards prevention and treatment programs, as was proposed for the cigarette tax in Massachusetts.
On liquor/alcohol the story is similar. Excise taxes (federal and state) already account for over 40 cents of each dollar spent for liquor purchases in Massachusetts. In essence, this proposed sales tax is actually a tax on an already existing tax. Massachusetts already loses beverage alcohol sales to New Hampshire which generally has lower spirit sales and no deposit on beer containers.
Massachusetts retailers must compete on an unlevel playing field every day with New Hampshire and the Internet – both tax free, and both not employing Massachusetts residents. TAX FREE Amazon.com reported an 18% increase in both 2008 4th Quarter sales, and first quarter 2009 sales, while most MA retailers saw a decrease in equal amounts.
"We are gravely disappointed that the Massachusetts Legislature not only decided to raise the sales tax in Massachusetts, but also decided to eliminate the exemptions that not only protect businesses along our border communities, but also preserve the idea of fairness and equity by not double taxing consumers across the Comonwealth," Ellis said.
3. Massachusetts Gift Certificate Law
Beginning in mid-June, the Massachusetts law regarding gift certificates is changing in regards to the ability of companies to charge certain fees and when a customer is allowed to redeem it for cash.
The new law prohibits dormancy or administrative fees or any other fee that decreases the value of the gift certificate. This does not, however, apply to a gift certificate that can be used at multiple retailers, such as an American Express gift card for example.
These changes also address when a customer has the right to cash out the value of a gift card. For reloadable cards, a customer can cash out once the value falls below $5.00. For non-reloadable cards, there is no change to the law. Customers can continue to request a cash pay out when more than 90% of the gift card’s value has been redeemed.
For the text of this law, click here: CHAPTER 58 OF THE ACTS OF 2008
4. Unemployment Insurance Rate Increases
Every year, the Chamber works to fight the automatic increases businesses face in the UI program in the state, even in time of a robust economy and virtual unemployment. Due to the way the law is written, is almost certainty that rates will increase, based on certain economic indicators and without legislative intervention, every year. The Chamber has been successful in fighting for increases or in getting less substantial increases than the law calls for. The Greater Gardner Chamber lobbied for and was successful in getting our area legislators to sponsor a bill that reduced rates by 4 levels, saving Massachusetts businesses almost $100 million.
5. Unemployment Reform
Massachusetts pays some of the most generous benefits for the longest time, and we want parity with other states. This Chamber has worked hard, and lobbied aggressively for this parity. Workers need only be on the job for 15 weeks to get 30 weeks of benefits during a time of robust economy. The expansion of weeks one has to work in a year to qualify for benefits from 15 to 20 weeks is a reasonable reform. The UI system was established to help those workers committed to the workforce who have lost their job through no fault of their own. There are many people who enter the workforce for short period of times. In fact, in 1999, during a period of virtual full employment, our state paid out over $600 million in unemployment benefits, attributed in large part to the number of seasonal employees collecting. Furthermore, only 4 other states in the nation require 15 weeks or less of employment to be eligible for benefits, while the remainder require 20 weeks, and over half of these states require more than 20 weeks.
6. Requirements for Security Breach Notifications Under Chapter 93H
On 11/14/08 The Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation (“OCABR”) extended the deadline for compliance with standards for how businesses protect and store consumers’ personal Information. The Chamber was one of many business organizations that asked for an extension on these regulations, primarily because many small businesses did not understand the complexity of the task. In the spring of 2009, the Chamber hosted a program to help small businesses comply with these regulations.
7. Small Business Exemption from Sales Tax for Utilities
With the increase in energy costs affecting all of our members, the Chamber wants to be sure small businesses are aware of a state law commonly referred to as the Small Business Exemption. Under this law, certain small businesses do not have to pay the sales tax on gas, steam, electricity and heating fuel purchased solely for their own use.
This law applies to small businesses that:
• Have a gross income of less than $1,000,000 for the prior calendar year;
• Reasonably expect the same in the current year; and
• Have 5 or less employees.
If you qualify for this program, you must fill out a state tax form and submit it to your vendor. Please note this form must be filled out annually. You can find the form by clicking here http://www.mass.gov/Ador/docs/dor/Forms/Wage_Rpt/PDFs/st_13.pdf.
Under the law, only purchases made after the certificate has been submitted are eligible for the exemption.
8. HR 1873 Small Business ContractingThe Chamber contacted our federal representatives on this bill because the bill does not contain the annual re-certification provision that had been recommended by the SBA Inspector General to stop the diversion of Federal small business contracts to large companies. We asked our delegation to propose and support an annual re-certification provision in the Senate version of this legislation, which would require annual re-certification for all firms that currently hold Federal small business contracts, as well as a provision that would prevent the Federal government and prime contractors from reporting awards to any business that would not currently meet the definition of a small business.
9. Health Care Reform Changes to Minimal Creditable Coverage
Chapter 58, the healthcare reform law, establishes an individual mandate that every resident of Massachusetts has health care coverage. Minimum Creditable Coverage (MCC) is the basic level of coverage Massachusetts citizens must have to prevent paying a tax penalty to the state. Recently, amendments were introduced to change the benefits required for an individual to meet the MCC standard. These changes would go into effect beginning January 1, 2009. The Chamber lobbied hard, writing to our reps and senators about the negative effect this would have on our businesses and their employees. In late November, the Chamber was notified that there would be no changes to the Minimal Creditable Coverage under the Health Care Reform Law for this year. But, we can expect this will rear its ugly head again next year.
7. Health Care Reform Changes to Fair Share Contribution
Burdensome employer reporting requirements were recently expanded by the Legislature and Governor Deval Patrick in legislatively approved changes to the Fair Share Contribution (FSC) program. Also, the Patrick Administration is now finalizing companion regulatory changes to the program in an attempt to raise more tax revenue on the backs of Massachusetts employers. Already, the administration has changed how employers calculate the number of employees, and now require the calculation to be made quarterly, which will drastically change and alter the net effect of part time/full time equivalent calculations for many businesses in certain quarters, changing their eligibility and requiring them to pay the fair share assessment. Furthermore, regulations were changed that now force businesses to meet both eligibility requirement if they were on the cusp, a significant change from the “either or “ requirement in the initial legislation. The Chamber along with other chamber from across the state are fighting the increase in the fair share assessment at this time.
10. Health Care
Healthcare costs have risen 129% in the last 9 years for some businesses, and with no relief in sight, the Chamber has put this as the number 1 issue on its agenda for the last 2 years, and as the number 1 issue on the Massachusetts Council of Chambers. We have brought expert speakers, including our own Dan Moen, President of Heywood Hospital, to address our group on real issues that are forcing the cost of health care up in our state, and are working on getting new initiatives through to help curtail the cost of healthcare in Massachusetts. Some of our findings:
Massachusetts, and the nation as a whole, does not make it attractive for Docs to want to go into primary medicine, therefore, there is a shortage of primary care docs. Health Care Reform is great, everyone has a card, but it is not stopping them from going to the ER to get their care, because they cannot get into to see their doc or a doc in a timely manner when something is wrong.
There are too many plans to administer and therefore, too much overhead and too costly. Each insurance company has a plethora of plans—literally thousands. They need an army of people to monitor and administer these plans, as do care providers like hospitals, doctors offices, pharmacies, etc. The paperwork and bureaucracy simply adds a significant cost to our health care costs.
It takes too long for generic prescription meds to get to market. Because of patent protection laws that protect pharmaceutical companies for extended periods of time only because of changes to inert ingredients inert ingredients to drugs, generics cannot get to market for those drugs. These protections should not be extended to drugs that do not have significant changes made to their active ingredients.
11. Family Leave/paid sick days:
The Chamber opposed the Massachusetts Family Leave Bill because of the likelihood of abuse, difficulty by small businesses to keep the positions open, and likelihood that costs were going to be shifted to the business.
12. Quarterly Estimated Payments of Corporate Excise Tax
The Chamber asked our legislators to approve this more equitable method of payment for businesses.
13. Casino Gambling
The Chamber aggressively supported this initiative, as a new revenue source for the state and for the tourism industry as a whole. Hotel and restaurant and local communities would all benefit from this initiative, but this lobby was more effective in killing it. Most importantly this was a way to drive new revenues to local cities and towns. The Chamber supports Casino Gambling in Massachusetts.
14. Tax Policy
In April of 2008, House members approved the bill on a 131-23. The measure, which also includes an increase in the state cigarette tax, now goes to the Senate for consideration in the next several weeks. Governor Deval Patrick has made the corporate tax increase a centerpiece of his fiscal policy and is expected to sign the bill.
The House bill would increase business taxes by imposing combined reporting and “check the box” apportionment formulas on companies with operations in multiple states. At the same time, it would lower the tax rate on corporations from 9.5 percent to 8.75 percent on January 1, 2009, with the possibility of additional reductions to 7.5 percent based upon economic conditions. Financial institutions would see their tax rates fall from 10.5 percent to 10 percent, with the possibility of additional reductions to 9 percent.
15. Attorney General
Independent Contractor Law-Program to assist new interpretation of 1099 Contractors in Massachusetts and treatment thereof. Businesses in Massachusetts must be careful when using the 1099 exemption under new guidelines issued by the Attorney General or face onerous penalties. The Chamber hosted a program sponsored by the AG's Office to assist with compliance on this complicated issues.