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April 12, 2018

Dear NJGCA Member:

Thank you for reading this week's NJGCA Road Warrior!

Here is what you will find in this edition:

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE:

• OTR Out Now; HLA Trade Show; State Incentives to Purchase EV's; April is Sikh Awareness Month; Last Call: April 17th Seminar; Pay-As-You-Go Mobile Phones

NJGCA CLASSIFIEDS
- Monmouth County: Gas Station and Repair Shop Business Since 2001
- Asbury Park: Commercial Building for Sale. Possible Sale of Business
- Bergen County: Shell Gas Station with 6-Bay Repair Shop for Sale

NEWS AROUND THE STATE

• Food Stamp Overhaul Worries Retailers

• A Pessimistic Tesla Forecast

• As NJ Bails Out Nuclear Industry, Utility Rates May Go Down … Or Up
• Amid Arguments And Warnings, Nuclear Subsidy Bill Clears Committee

TRAINING CLASS SCHEDULE!
??????• Emissions Inspector Training Class, TUESDAY, May 8th

MEMBER BENEFIT PARTNER MESSAGE BOARD
• The Amato Agency: Garage Insurance and Workers Compensation!
• ATS Environmental: Confidence in your Tank & Compliance Testing
• Bellomo Fuel: Exceptional Service, Aggressive Petroleum Marketing
• CBIZ Insurance: Our Business is Growing Yours!
• Gill Energy: Getting you There!
• Lending Capital: "Commercial Loans Made Easy" Program
• Salomone Brothers: Tank Testing and Environmental Compliance
• TMP Energy Solutions: Another Way to Save On Your Energy Bills

POLITICAL PARTICIPATON: THE NJGCA PAC
• Participate in the NJGCA PAC today and help us keep our Agenda rolling in Trenton!

Energy Information Agency Weekly Retail Gasoline Prices

JOIN NJGCA ON FACEBOOK -- CLICK HERE
TO SEE OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL -- CLICK HERE

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE:

OTR OUT NOW
HLA TRADE SHOW
STATE INCENTIVES TO PURCHASE EV’S
PAY-AS-YOU-GO MOBILE PHONES
APRIL IS SIKH AWARENESS MONTH
LAST CALL: APRIL 17TH SEMINAR

I hope you are all checking your mailboxes for our April edition of On the Road as this month touches on some very timely issues happening in New Jersey.

For convenience store owners, first, I want to refer you all to Marty Glick’s piece in the OTR, as I have recently and repeatedly mentioned the importance of using only reputable distributors and not to be tempted to make purchases from distributors that sell out of their cars. NJGCA has two reputable convenience store distributors as MBP’s: HLA and Quick & Fresh. As it turns out, HLA sponsored a vendor trade show yesterday at the Expo Center in Edison. We had a booth there and were pleased to see so many members come through and taking our advice to only purchase from reputable suppliers. I want to thank HLA for inviting us to the show.

Also in reference to the theme of this months OTR, please read this article that popped up yesterday that shows the efforts the that Trenton is making to encourage people to buy electric vehicles (EVs). They are proposing $100 million a year in rebates for this effort. This highlights the efforts government is making to incentivize New Jersey citizens to buy these vehicles. I can't say this enough, every customer who drives an EV is a customer who will never purchase a drop of gas from you. Further, when the time comes; are you repair shop owners going to be capable of fixing this customers car?

As of Monday, April is now officially Sikh awareness month. I know this is something that is important to many of our members as some are a part of the NJGCA. We’re glad the Governor made this announcement to recognize the contribution that this community has made to our state. You can read the resolution that was passed Monday here.

LAST CALL for those of you who have not yet signed up for our April 17th seminar with NJDEP. I cannot say this enough, if you own or are responsible for maintaining the UST’s at your facility, then you will be subject to new regulations and testing requirements that may cost you a lot of money. If you have not done so already, sign up ASAP for this seminar to prepare for these changes. Online registration will close Monday morning at 10AM.

Finally, I have a question for all of you with convenience stores. Do you sell phones with prepaid minutes on them, or cards with prepaid phone minutes? The reason I ask is because of a new bill that recently passed the Assembly Homeland Security Committee. It would require any customer who purchases these products to pay a fee of 90¢ at the point of sale. This fee would be dedicated for 9-11 calls, and is already assessed on regular mobile phone customers. Our immediate concern is not just the actual fee, but that you, the retailer, would be required to collect it and then send it to the State whenever someone happened to make one of these purchases. If nothing else it would be better for the fee to be collected by the wholesaler and sent to the State. However, if none of our members sell these products then there is no issue for us. Please email Eric@njgca.org if you do sell these products.

That’s all for this week
Sal Risalvato
Executive Director

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

Emissions Inspector Training Class - One Day Only!
TUESDAY, May 8th, 2018 -- 7 AM to 3 PM
Want one of your technicians to become a NJ Emissions Inspector? We can help! Our one-day class will provide all the information for becoming a NJ Emissions Inspector, and the State will administer the written test the very same day at our offices! We are offering the class: Thursday, February 15 from 7:00am to 3:00pm. Cost $275.
Click HERE for the registration form.

FUTURE CLASSES WILL BE ADDED UPON REQUEST AND ACCORDING TO DEMAND. CONTACT DEBBIE at 732-256-9646 or DEBBIE@NJGCA.ORG TO LET HER KNOW YOU ARE INTERESTED IN TAKING A SPECIFIC CLASS. THIS WILL ALLOW US TO GAUGE YOUR NEEDS AND KEEP TRACK OF THOSE WISHING TO PARTICIPATE!!

CLASSIFIEDS! -- FOR SALE & HELP WANTED ADS

FOR SALE:

Business For Sale: Monmouth County gas station and repair shop in business since 2001 is for sale. Owner is relocating out of state and is interested in selling business and equipment. Owner is open to limited financing. Business has a strong 10 year lease. The building has two repair bays and the gas pumps are leased to a large independent tenant. Repair shop business currently employs a Manager and two full-time Technicians. For inquiries and more info, please call Mark at 908-670-7798.

FOR SALE:

Commercial Building in Asbury Park, Possible Sale of Business, Too! For listing information, please click HERE.

FOR SALE:

Shell Gas Station with 6-Bay Repair Shop for Sale in Bergen County!

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.

Towing business also available which includes 3 Freightliner/JerrDan flatbeds (2015, 2016 & 2017), a 2012 Dodge crew cab wrecker with a Jerrdan Quick Pick & dual cable winch & 2 service trucks (a 2012 GMC 2500 utility truck with a plow & a 2014 Ford transit battery/service vehicle).

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

4/11/18
Food Stamp Overhaul Worries Retailers
Retailers already facing stiff competition from online merchants and local businesses now have a new worry on the horizon—the Trump administration’s push to slash the food stamp program by close to $130 billion—20%—over the next 10 years, the Wall Street Journal reports. The proposals from Republicans aimed at revamping the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are part of the Farm Bill negotiations. The Farm Bill, which will expire September 30, provides SNAP with around 80% of its funding. For food retailers, changes to SNAP would mean even more tightening as margins continue to erode.

4/10/18
A Pessimistic Tesla Forecast
A new Goldman Sachs research note suggests that Tesla is not equipped to meet its upcoming targets for production of the mass-market Model 3. The analysis led by Goldman's David Tamberrino also sees erosion of the stock price that regained momentum last week when Tesla reported its latest production and delivery data. This paints a daunting picture of headwinds the Silicon Valley automaker faces as it tries to scale up production of the car that is key to the company's long-term future. Tesla hopes to reach production of 5,000 Model 3s per week by mid-year after reporting that it made over 2,000 during the final week of the first quarter. But the Goldman note states:
"[W]e believe the sustainable production rate for 2Q18 is most likely below the 2,000 vehicle mark the company achieved in the final week of the quarter."

4/9/18
As NJ Bails Out Nuclear Industry, Utility Rates May Go Down … Or Up
If you pay a utility bill in New Jersey, price changes appear to be on the way, but whether they're going lower or higher overall is much murkier. The Democrat-led Legislature appears set next week to take a final vote on legislation that would provide roughly $300 million in annual financial assistance to the state's nuclear power industry, costing utility ratepayers an estimated $41 a year each. But that measure is advancing through the Legislature as the Murphy administration, through the Board of Public Utilities, is requiring electric, gas and water utilities in the state to slash rates by a combined $271 million because of the federal tax cut bill.

4/6/18
Amid Arguments And Warnings, Nuclear Subsidy Bill Clears Committee
After months of contentious debate and false starts, a package of bills increasing the state’s reliance on renewable energy, as well as subsidizing nuclear power plants, won approval yesterday from a pair of legislative committees. The passage sets the stage for final approval by both houses on Thursday to legislation that likely will impose billions of dollars in new costs on utility customers to support those programs. If signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy as expected, the measures will begin implementing key parts of the new administration’s clean-energy agenda, while averting the threatened closing of nuclear power plants, operated by Public Service Enterprise Group. The issues range across multiple trends, roiling the energy sector, including cheap natural gas that has made other conventional sources of electricity less viable (mainly coal and nuclear), along with emerging, competitive sources of cleaner energy, such as solar and wind power.

MEMBER BENEFIT PARTNER MESSAGE BOARD:

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.

POLITICAL PARTICIPATON: THE NJGCA PAC

DEFENDING OUR MEMBERS.
PROTECTING YOUR INTERESTS.
ANSWER THE CALL & CONTRIBUTE TODAY!!

Promoting our agenda in Trenton is of utmost importance to NJGCA and our members.

However, in order to truly affect the debate, we must ensure our friends in the Legislature are re-elected. It is for this reason that your Association has established the NJGCA PAC.

For too long, the weight of funding our Political Action Committee, the arm of the Association responsible for political donations, has rested upon a few. This is not only unfair to those few members who have shouldered this burden, but means we are not utilizing our full strength to affect the debate in Trenton.

To truly understand the importance of supporting our allies, consider our successes in Trenton:

We defeated BELOW COST SELLING
We made history in getting FIRST RIGHT OF REFUSAL signed into law!
We have built large support for RIGHT TO REPAIR and got it passed out of the Assembly
We defended your small business against the false accusations of Attorney General Anne Milgram
We gained wide support to move New Jersey to an all PIF Inspection System and close the CIF lanes
...and MUCH MORE!!

In each instance, we achieved these goals with the help of our friends in the Legislature!

If every member contributes just $100.00 we will be able to provide the help necessary to ensure victory for our allies.

PLEASE SEND YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO:
NJGCA PAC
4900 Route 33 West, Suite 100
Wall Township, NJ 07753
Please make your donation payable to NJGCA PAC

I understand that times are tough for all NJGCA members, but this is just as important as any battle we have fought in the past.

We have made great progress in Trenton. I hope that you will answer the call.

Energy Information Agency Weekly Retail Gasoline Prices

Each week, the Energy Information Administration publishes a list of average gasoline prices for the previous three weeks. NJGCA will begin including this list with the Weekly Road Warrior. Remember, these prices are reflective of self-serve everywhere except NJ.