TRAINING CLASSES!!

All classes held at NJGCA HQ -- 4900 Route 33 West, Wall Township, NJ 07753

                                                                                                                                                               

 CLASSIFIEDS! -- FOR SALE & HELP WANTED ADS

Business established in 1980. Fully equipped repair shop with 5 lifts including an alignment rack with a 2-year-old Hunter Hawkeye alignment machine. New Hunter tire machine & wheel balancer. AAA aproved and very busy.

Pumping over 1,000,000 gallons per year. 100x300 lot with plenty of parking. Excellent location!!! Call Jim @ 201-851-3084.

         

                                                                                                                                                                         

NEWS AROUND THE STATE: THE NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW

08/16/2017:
NJ Lottery pulls poker game three days after launch
Three days after launching a new scratch-off game promising more than $13.6 million in prizes, the NJ State Lottery rushed to pull the game off store shelves because of confusion about the rules. The lottery started selling a new scratch-off game called High Stakes Poker on Aug. 7, putting more than 1 million tickets on shelves around the state. The $5 game had a top prize of $150,000. The object of the game is for the player to beat the dealer's hand.  But soon there was confusion over the rules "when a handful of players questioned their win scenario," lottery spokeswoman Judy Drucker said in an email.  "The NJ Lottery has discontinued the sale of the High Card Poker instant game due to player misunderstanding of the game’s win scenarios, as stated on the back of the ticket," Drucker said. One player, Robert Chalet, told the news site TAPinto.net that he thought he had a winning hand with the $150,000 grand prize, but when he went to cash in was told, "You won and you didn't win." Chalet, of Bloomfield, had a hand of 5-6-9-J-Q, while the dealer held 4-6-7-10-Q, according to the news site. If the player and dealer in a real poker game have the same high card, the second-highest card would break the tie. In that scenario, Chalet would have the winning hand since a jack trumps a 10. But the directions on the scratch-off do not consider a tie.
 
08/14/2017:
Chicago Retailers Caught in the Middle of Soda-Tax Lawsuits
Several lawsuits have been filed in Chicago since a 1¢-per-ounce tax on sweetened beverages took effect in Cook County, Ill., on Aug. 3, 2017. More often than not, retailers and quick-service restaurants are taking the heat. So far, Walgreens drug stores, McDonald's restaurants and 7-Eleven convenience stores, each leaders in their respective retail channels, have been caught in the fray. For a look at some of the pending lawsuits and the status of the efforts to eliminate the week-old tax, click the link above.
 
08/13/2017:
Philadelphia’s Soda Tax Bust
The best laid plans of politicians often go awry, and then there’s Philadelphia’s soda tax. A new Tax Foundation report finds that the 1.5-cent-an-ounce levy that took effect in January is hurting low-income workers and producing less revenue than promised, but at least it’s helping beer sales. Allow us to explain. Mayor James Kenney and the City Council sold the tax as a revenue boon that would finance universal pre-K education. But the Tax Foundation reports that only 49% of the revenue is going to pre-K in practice in the first five years while the rest is going to fund government worker benefits and other city programs. Actual soda tax collections in the first six months were already $6.9 million below the city’s estimate of $46.2 million. This is no surprise to anyone who knows the iron economic law that when you tax something you get less of it. In this case that means fewer soda sales. Daniel Grace, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 830, estimates that soft-drink sales within the city are down by as much as 45%. His truck drivers earn money based in part on how many cases of soda they deliver, and he says the tax has halved their income.  As bodegas, supermarkets and gas stations struggle to make up the lost sales of a core item, 165 of his members are out of work.  Several ShopRite stores slashed employee hours this spring, and in March Pepsi announced it was laying off about 20% of its local workforce. Both blamed the soda tax. 

08/10/2017:
2 States to Test Miles-Traveled Tax
Two East Coast states are about to test a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax, meant to either supplement or replace a gasoline tax. The I-95 Corridor Coalition, an alliance of transportation agencies, toll authorities and public safety organizations for East Coast states from Maine to Florida, will begin testing a VMT tax in PA and Delaware. The VMT model levies a charge based on how many miles a person drives. A 2012 report conducted for the I-95 Corridor Coalition determined that the gas tax is unsustainable as a road-funding mechanism over the long term for East Coast states, and found the VMT model as “a primary candidate to replace or supplement motor fuel taxes” because it directly charges drivers who use the road. On the West Coast, Oregon has been testing the VMT model for more than a decade in two separate pilot programs. Volunteers pay a 1.5-mile-per-gallon fee in lieu of the state’s gas tax. Mileage is determined either with a device installed in the participants’ vehicles or through a GPS-based system. The I-95 Corridor Coalition project would include a three-month pilot in 2018 involving 50 vehicles in Delaware and Pennsylvania, according to program contractor CH2M Hill.  In the process, the project would examine how to apply mileage fees on toll roads, how to calculate miles for out-of-state drivers and how to transfer payments from state to state.  The $1.16 million project is funded by a grant from the Federal Highway Administration, with drivers, state agencies, trucking and tolling groups providing feedback for the final report.

                                                                                                                                                                 
MEMBER BENEFIT PARTNER MESSAGE BOARD:

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TMP Energy Solutions

Another Way to Save on Your Energy Bills

We have had a number of NJGCA members successfully reduce their rate per kWh signing up through our energy saving program. We know it's difficult to collect 12 months worth of previous electric bills to get an "accurate" analysis when comparing a variable rate to a fixed rate, but we now have another option available. 

This new solution is a power purchase option; the other program is still in full force and has saved members thousands of dollars. If you sign up for the power purchase option, you will be grouped with other NJGCA members until the minimum kW demand is acquired. By pooling the member's usage together, you will be able to take advantage, as large energy users do, and receive a lower kWh rate.

Each member will receive their own contract. Each member is responsible to sign and return the agreement the day it is received in order to secure the price for their group.

Please do your due diligence, so when you receive the proposal and the agreement you will be able to make an intelligent decision.

If by chance, you still want us to assess you bills, to give you a price to compare, we will require 12 months of your most recent utility bills.

There are no bills required, but we would still like to have one bill per meter on file to check account #'s, meter #'s  service addresses and other pertinent information incase there is a problem.

The term of the agreement is for 12 months. During this term period, you will have price protection against any energy price increases along with a low fixed kWh rate.

If you are interested in becoming part of this power purchase option, please contact Greg Cannon at the NJGCA.

Remember when you sign up your energy through the NJGCA Energy Program, TMP makes a considerable donation to the NJGCA Scholarship Fund through their proceeds. This has no affect on your rate, and costs you nothing out of pocket.

We hope to help hundreds of NJGCA members reduce their utility costs by participating in this and our other cost reduction programs.  Our purpose, in the endeavor, is to help NJGCA members lower their energy costs while supporting the NJGCA Scholarship Fund. 

Contact GREG CANNON at 732-256-9646 or email Greg at greg@njgca.org. Mention that you are interested in saving money on your energy bills. NJGCA & TMP Energy Solutions will handle all the rest.