May 6, 2011

Dear NJGCA Member:

Here's what you'll find in this edition of the NJGCA Road Warrior, and thank you for reading:

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE: GREETINGS & SAL-UTATIONS!
•Feel Good Politicians making us all miserable, bath salt ban

NEWS AROUND THE STATE
•Former Xanadu site will have new facade, is now American Dream at Meadowlands
•Governor willing to take U.S. DOT to court over $271 million rail tunnel funds
•Sweeney, Christie end impasse over N.J. Supreme Court nomination
•Gas prices and debt to dominate Congress in May

A SPECIAL MESSAGE FROM BELLOMO FUELS
•Serving New Jersey since 1910 -- Over 100 years of supplying gasoline retailers like YOU!

MEMBER BENEFIT PARTNER MESSAGE
•AFFINITY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION: A 5-Minute Individual Retirement Account (IRA) Primer

TRAINING CLASS SCHEDULE
•Interested in taking a class? See below and contact Debbie Hill!

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

THE MEMBER TOOL BOX
•On the NJGCA Homepage
•Know your Territory Manager!

 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE: GREETINGS & SAL-UTATIONS! 

FEEL GOOD POLITICIANS MAKING US ALL MISERABLE, 'BATH SALTS' BANNED…
...AND A SPECIAL THANK YOU

I’ve talked many times before about the scourge of “feel good politicians.”  These people are more interested in doing something that they think will sound good in a headline than they are concerned about actual public policy.  For them it’s all about a simple talking point they can paste on a flyer and mail out to their constituents around election time to make it look like they’ve been doing something.  I’ve been dealing with these self-interested fools for as long as I’ve been in this business. 

They like to pick out easy targets and propose simplistic bills that they think will make things better.  Take for instance the various assaults on Cash/Credit Pricing over the years.  These legislators see a higher price for credit and just seem to assume that the big bad oil companies are ripping off the poor defenseless consumer.  We all know that Cash/Credit Pricing is a business strategy that gives a discount for customers who use cash, and any attempt to eliminate it would just mean cash customers would be subsidizing credit users. 

This Monday, the New Jersey State Assembly plans to vote on a bill that would require stations to post the separate cash/credit pricing for all grades, meaning your sign might be required to have up to 8 different prices!  This is despite the fact that around 90% of fuel sold is regular gasoline (which is already required to be posted).  Sometimes I really don’t think these guys think before they act.  We hope that this provision of the bill will be removed, and if not then it would still have to be passed by the Senate and signed by the Governor in order to become law.  Given the Governor’s strong support for cutting onerous regulations, it’s hard for me to imagine he would support adding such a moronic rule, but I plan on stopping it before it ever gets to his desk anyway.  You can help by calling or emailing your local Assembly member and tell them to vote NO on A-3862. You can click HERE to find out who your Assembly members are.  Tell them to instead pass the Senate version, S-847, which doesn’t have this foolish amendment attached to it. 

Below Cost Selling is another example of dumb “feel good” politics.  They think that if stations sell below cost, the consumer will have low prices, and that’s as far as their thinking goes.  They don’t realize that it would only be a matter of time before the big chains (who can eat a loss on gas with their big profits elsewhere) would put all the smaller retailers out of business and then be free to jack up prices as high as they want after they’ve established a virtual monopoly in the area. 
I suppose it is somewhat heartening to know that our fair state does not have a monopoly on morons in political office.  Early this week a state senator in South Carolina proposed a bill that would cap gas prices in that state at whatever the average wholesale price is on June 1.  The state would then confiscate excess charges by retailers above the wholesale gas price into a trust fund. The Legislature would decide how to use the money to “benefit citizens”.  Do I really need to go into detail about what a thoroughly horrible idea this is?  Thankfully this bill seems like it is dead on arrival. 

In Maryland, the Governor apparently doesn’t think his state’s gas prices are high enough!  In the midst of some of the highest gas prices on record, he wants to raise the gas tax even higher.  The Legislature there already shot down a plan to raise the gas tax 12 cents, but Governor Martin O’Malley (D) sounds ready to try again.  He’s trying to suggest that this is really the only way for them to refill their Transportation Trust Fund.  You can contrast this with our own Governor Christie, who came up with a plan to refill our TTF without any tax raises.  It is widely believed that this Governor O’Malley is trying to set himself up to run for president in 2016, but with ideas like these he hopefully won’t go very far!

Last week, we sent out a special Wildfire Alert to alert you about a new ban on “bath salts”.  These deceptively named products, which are often sold at convenience stores and gas stations, have been used by people to get a cheap high, and have now been made illegal by the NJ Attorney General.  If you still have any of these products, you must turn them into the nearest police station by May 8th, after that you may be prosecuted!  For more information, read the Wildfire Alert by clicking HERE

In case you missed it, I was recently interviewed by two different newspapers on two different topics.  Courier-Post reporter Jim Walsh reached out to me about gas-thefts and the number of folks out there who have been ‘driving-off’ without paying.  The other piece, highlighting how credit card fees are eating up all your profits and the benefits of motorists paying with cash, was penned by David Willis at the Asbury Park Press. You read these two articles by clicking HERE and HERE, respectively.

Finally, I also want to send out a hearty congratulations and a heartfelt thank you to everyone involved in finally bringing Osama Bin Laden to justice.  While I’ve had my share of disagreements with President Obama, he absolutely made the right call on this one.  Things could have gone much worse than they did, and he made a gutsy call that paid off spectacularly.  I also want to credit President Bush for his years of hard work.  Ultimately though, most of the credit has to go the professional men and women of our military and intelligence services, who have been working hard nonstop, some for over a decade, on bringing this terrorist to justice.  We are all proud of your tireless efforts, and once again THANK YOU!

Thanks for listening - See you next week!

Regards,
Sal Risalvato
Executive Director

NEWS AROUND THE STATE

5/4/2011:
Former Xanadu site will have new facade, is now American Dream at Meadowlands
Renderings unveiled yesterday by developer Triple Five now show a shimmery, illuminated structure that will be made of glass, mesh and other materials. The project’s first phase includes 2.9 million square feet of retail space, amusement attractions and restaurants and is projected to open in late 2013, in time for the 2014 Super Bowl next door at New Meadowlands Stadium.  By the time an additional 4.5 million square feet of hotels, a convention center and other projects are completed, Triple Five said, the complex will be the biggest retail, entertainment, amusement, recreation and tourism project in the world.

5/3/2011:
Governor willing to take U.S. DOT to court over $271 million rail tunnel funds
In what will certainly amount to legal drama, Governor Christie has stated that he will go to court to keep the $271 million in federal funds that were awarded to New Jersey before the ARC Tunnel cancellation.  Federal Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has demanded that the money be returned since the project has been terminated, but the Governor insists that returning the funds was never part of the original agreement. The ARC Tunnel project, originally set to cost $8.7 billion, was cancelled by the Christie Administration due to billions in cost overruns.

5/2/2011:
Sweeney, Christie end impasse over N.J. Supreme Court nomination
A political impasse between Gov. Christie and Senate President Stephen Sweeney over state Supreme Court nominations has ended 364 days after it began.  The agreement calls for the Senate to hold confirmation hearings for Morris County lawyer Anne Patterson one year after the governor nominated her to replace Justice John Wallace on the bench. Christie, in turn, will resubmit her nomination to instead take the spot of Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto, who is stepping down in September.  Christie said that if Patterson is confirmed, New Jersey will become the fifth state to have a Supreme Court with a majority of female justices.

5/1/2011:
Gas prices and debt to dominate Congress in May
Tamping down voter anger over rising prices at the pump has emerged as a top priority for the White House, which has seen President Barack Obama's approval ratings take a beating during Congress's two-week spring recess.  With polls showing higher pump prices undermining Americans' confidence in Obama's economic leadership, Republicans are keen to exploit an issue that could hurt the Democratic president's chances of reelection in 2012. 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ARTICLES IN OUR “NEWS AROUND THE STATE” ARCHIVE