February 18, 2016

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: GREETINGS & SAL-UTATIONS!

FIRST EVER NJGCA AUTO REPAIR AND TIRE SHOP SUMMIT RECAP
GOVERNOR'S BUDGET ADDRESS MENTIONS TTF FUNDING
MANDATORY PAID SICK LEAVE IN THE WORKS
$15 MINIMUM WAGE EFFORT IN NJ

I apologize for not getting a message out last week, but as you can imagine, we were quite busy with our extremely successful Auto Repair and Tire Shop Summit, and I just wasn't able to get everything together in time. I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the sponsors of the event and all of the attendees. With the exception of just one person, we've heard nothing but glowing remarks and positive feedback regarding the event (it's ok, you can't please everyone!). We even received the following email early on Thursday morning from Trivett's Sunoco in Atlantic Highlands:

To Sal and Staff,

Thank you for a great event yesterday. Billy and I enjoyed the speakers, vendors and the company of others with the same problems we have. It's always good to hear other business with the same issues, and to know that we aren't alone and that we have an organization like NJGCA on our side and always fighting for us!

Sincerely,
Anne and Billy Trivett

Now that we've had some time to recover, we were able to put together a website with all of the materials from the Summit for you to reference.

I'm also providing a few pictures in this email, but to see the whole slideshow, CLICK HERE.

Next, though I have long been a skeptic of social media, I recently gave my approval for the creation of an official NJGCA Twitter account, in part to coincide with the Summit. If you or your business is on Twitter, make sure to follow our account: @NJGCA_ https://twitter.com/NJGCA_

All of the photos are also available on our FaceBook page.

A few quick updates from Trenton this week... On Tuesday, Governor Christie gave his annual budget address. This is the first public address he has given since ending his presidential campaign. Unlike previous speeches in the recent past, his Budget Address actually mentioned the Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) funding crisis.

He did not rule out a gas tax increase, but he said that there must be “tax fairness”. This basically means that if the State is going to raise taxes by a certain amount in order to fund the TTF, other taxes must be lowered by the same amount. The tax most commonly discussed among advocates and insiders is one of the two death taxes. A reasonable increase in the gas tax (NOT a sales tax!) combined with the reduction or elimination of the death tax (which prevents many small business owners from leaving their business to their children when they pass) would be a pretty good deal considering that we already know that some kind of gas tax increase is inevitable.

I also continue to advocate that any increase should be done when gas prices are low, rather than waiting another year when the cost of gas could be back to $3.00 a gallon and the cost of a load would be twice the current price.

I also applaud the Governor for blasting the plan to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour. You don’t need me to tell you how destructive this would be to your business (and to the cost of gas, particularly when it would likely come on top of a tax increase).

I was also very pleased to see that the state Senate canceled their planned vote on mandatory paid sick leave last week. Those who attended the Auto Repair Summit got all the details on the planned and current paid sick leave laws from our Associate Director of Government Affairs Eric Blomgren. As a result of the NJGCA Action Alert, over 100 members successfully contacted their state Senator expressing their concerns, and I have no doubt that those voices, magnified with the voices of businesses from other industries across the State, played a big role in getting that vote canceled. Thank you to all those who took action, and remember that the next time you get one of those emails, sending it will have a real effect!

That's all I have for this week, but be ready for more important legislative updates next week!

Head of the Motor Vehicle Commission, Chief Ray Martinez, addresses attendees as our Keynote Speaker

A packed house of attendees. A special thank you to our Diamond, Platinum and Gold Sponsors!

Four (4) Full Days -- Starts February 23
Days: 9AM - 5PM on Tuesdays -- Feb 23, March 1, 8, 15

Monday, March 14th -- 7:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Class Starts 7:00 AM (donuts and coffee provided)
Pizza and soda served at 12:00 pm
MVC Test at 1:00 PM

Cost: Member = $250
Non-Member = $300

Please bring $50.00 check made payable to NJMVC to satisfy the State's licensing fee

For more information and Registration Form, click HERE

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

NJGCA MEMBER BENEFIT PARTNER GILL ENERGY LOOKING TO HIRE FOR (3) DIFFERENT POSITIONS!

For more information about these positions, and to submit a resume for consideration, please contact: ravigill@gillenergy.com.

2/17/2016:
France Will Pave Roads With 620 Miles Of Solar Panels
Thanks to a steep drop in the price of photovoltaic cells, you're more likely to see solar panels on buildings as you drive along. But what if one day you drove on those solar panels as well? Embedding solar panels in roadways has been proposed before, but the French government may be about to take the most ambitious step toward that goal yet. The country's environment agency plans to resurface 621 miles of roads with solar panels, according to Australian car site Motoring. Those roads will use a purpose-built solar panel called Wattway, developed by road-building company Colas in partnership with the French National Solar Energy Institute. Colas claims the Wattway panels can be directly applied to an existing road surface, and will provide comparable levels of grip to conventional paving materials.

2/11/2016:
Freeze of Obama carbon plan gets mixed reaction in N.J.
Business and industry leaders in NJ applauded the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to temporarily block President Obama's plan to cut carbon emissions from power plants, saying the plan does not give NJ enough credit for emissions cuts it has already made. The Christie administration had joined several dozen states in filing suit last October to block Obama's sweeping plan to cut carbon emissions by a third nationwide by 2030 in an effort to stem the effects of climate change. But the state's environmental advocates expressed dismay at the Supreme Court ruling, saying it could delay implementation of a plan that would help NJ by lowering the risk of sea level rise and reducing air pollution blowing into NJ from other states. Still, they expressed confidence the plan will ultimately withstand the court challenge. The Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling means that the carbon plan can't be implemented until a lower court rules on the suit filed by New Jersey, 28 other states and many companies and industry groups, who argue the plan exceeds the federal government's authority.

2/10/2016:
NJBIA blasts $15 minimum wage proposal as 'direct hit' on small businesses
New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA) CEO & President Michele Siekerka says proposals for a $15 minimum wage recently put forth by some NJ lawmakers will, "impact the state's economic climate and be a direct hit on NJ small businesses." Last Tuesday, Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford) and U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross (D-Cherry Hill) each announced plans for bills calling for gradual increases of both the state and federal minimum wages to $15 per hour. Those plans came a week after Speaker Vincent Prieto (D-Secaucus) and Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Sayreville) announced their own intentions of hiking the state’s minimum wage to $15/hr. NJ’s current minimum wage ($8.38/hr) and all of it's future increases and decreases, were constitutionally tied to the consumer price index through a voter referendum passed in 2013. Business groups, which largely opposed the 2013 decision, have criticized the notion of reopening the discussion once again.

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.

*NEW*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 for reflective of self-serve everywhere except NJ.