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Week Fourteen - April 24, 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
SB 205: The Chamber joined the retail merchants
in opposing SB 205, legislation that increases the pecuniary loss
thresholds for retail theft, trespassing, shop lifting, etc. Simply
put, this bill changes the thresholds at which a theft changes
from being classified as a misdemeanor to a felony. Currently,
any stolen property in NH valued at $500 or more can be classified
as a felony. This bill would raise that threshold, allowing any
stolen property up to $1,750 to be classified as only a misdemeanor
rather than as a felony.
Organized Retail Crime (ORC) in New Hampshire is on the rise.
Retailers in our region are seeing significant increases in groups
of criminals who are extremely well-versed in New Hampshire state
law. These thieves try to keep the individual thefts to mere dollars
below the felony level. They also work in teams so as to avoid
the potential for being charged at the felony level for three
or more thefts in a 72-hour period.
If we do not have the ability to charge higher level thefts
as felonies, we are allowing more theft to take place and therefore
severely impacting retail business in New Hampshire. We are also
sending a message to thieves that they now may steal more goods
without concern of a possible felony conviction.
As the financial limits for misdemeanors are increased, criminal
enterprise will increase in New Hampshire, impacting retailers
and law enforcement. A misdemeanor theft conviction is unlikely
to result in jail time; therefore, thieves will be more likely
to take the risk and steal. This is a dangerous road we cannot
afford to go down. Persons who have no fear of accruing a misdemeanor
conviction for theft will be thrilled that under this bill the
limit of their ability to steal just increased $1,750.00. This
is not the New Hampshire way.
More
Labor Woes
HB 240: The Chamber, as well as many other business
groups, opposed the Labor Departments amendment to HB 240 this
week. We are back again to the issue of independent contractor
vs. employee classification. The Department stated their reasoning
for the language change is that they are having a problem enforcing
the employee classification existing law. The existing law states
that “if the Commissioner finds that the employer’s
use of such written agreement was intended to misrepresent the
relationship between the employer and the person providing services,
the Commissioner may assess a civil penalty....” The Department
is interpreting the current law regarding the penalties to only
apply if there is a written agreement between employer and employee
as to the employment classification. Oral agreements that misrepresent
employee classifications cannot be fined according to the Department.
They claim employers stopped putting agreements in writing since
written agreements are enforceable but oral agreements are not.
The amendment is applying penalties to non-written, as well as
written agreements, but more importantly the amendment deletes
the “intent” standard. Therefore, if the amendment
passes, any mistake could now be penalized. The amendment
would punish an honest mistake. The bad actors should be fined
but not those who make honest mistakes.
SB 144, which allows the unemployment compensation
trust fund to be charged for benefits to employees who voluntarily
leave their employment, had a standing-room-only hearing. The
reason for this was that an amendment was offered by the Department
of Employment Security to add more circumstances by which one
can receive unemployment benefits. The Department argues these
conditions are necessary in statute in order for New Hampshire
to receive $21 million of Federal stimulus money into our depleted
Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund. The new circumstances are:
- The employee can no longer perform the duties of their job
due to illness, non-work related injury or pregnancy.
- The employee left work in order to accompany their spouse
to a new location where it is impractical for the employee to
commute to their current job. The Department considers up to
50 miles a reasonable commute.
- The employee left work due to an illness or disability of
a member of the immediate family.
The Department testified that since this one-time Federal money,
the Feds will allow New Hampshire to repeal these conditions for
unemployment compensation after 2 years; however, they will not
allow a sunset provision for the legislation. Odd, huh?
We certainly thought unemployment funds were to be provided when
the employer terminated an employee. It now seems the pendulum
has swung the other way in that it is the employees’ choice
to voluntarily terminate and still collect benefits,
due to these new conditions.
The second bullet item above is of particular interest; it actually
says that an employee can collect benefits if he or she voluntarily
leave a job to relocate with his or her spouse if that spouse
got a new job somewhere that would make commuting for the employee
unfeasible. In other words, a woman can get a job that requires
her and her husband to move; the husband could then quit his job
to move with his wife, but still collect unemployment benefits
for doing so, despite the fact that he left his job voluntarily.
SB 170 also had a full room hearing before the
House Labor Committee. This is the bill that gives unemployment
benefits to unemployed persons who are attempting to establish
a business. Senator Maggie Hassan, the prime sponsor, stated that
historically, in times of recession, people who have lost their
jobs have decided to open their own business. This bill sets up
the structure where a person must meet certain criteria to qualify.
Not more than 5% of total unemployment compensation recipients
may participate in this program.
There is concern over the current decline in the state’s
Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund. We believe a trigger of
$225 million should be added to the legislation for this benefit
to take effect. The Trust Fund probably won’t be up to $225
million again until 2014. Why expand benefits at the same time
the business community is being asked to put more money into the
Trust Fund as it will be near depletion by the end of the year?
Another
Full House
SB 132, which is a bill the Senate amended to
create a commission to develop implementation plans for merging
state agencies, had a hearing before House Executive Departments
and Administration and had to be moved to Representatives Hall.
This is a record year for the number of hearings taking place
in Reps Hall due to large turnout of people wishing to testify!
The only public support for the bill was from the Governor’s
Office and the Senate Majority Office. The Senate’s version
of the bill called for implementing a plan for merging:
- Department of Resource & Economic Development, except
the parks and forest divisions, with the Department of Employment
Security;
- Department of Cultural Resources, Department of Agriculture,
Markets and Food, the Department of Fish and Game, the Division
of Parks and Recreation, and the Division of Forest and Lands;
- All law enforcement functions under the Department of
Safety.
Due to the huge outcry against “change,” Senator
Hassan offered an amendment which would create a commission to
“consider” mergers and “develop draft implementation
plans for any such mergers.” All of this has to be done
by November 1, 2009. There are many who do not think this legislation
will pass the House. Interesting to see if the House of “change”
(the House passed medical marijuana, same sex marriage, transgender
equality) will change social policies but not “change”
government.
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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