March 6, 2015

Dear NJGCA Member:

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

Here is what you will find in this edition:

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

REPAIR SHOPS, C-STORES, GAS STATIONS: IS YOUR TOWN OUT OF CONTROL?
PAID SICK LEAVE, TOBACCO AGE, PLASTIC BAG FEE, MINIMUM WAGE
COUNTERFEIT AND NONFUNCTIONAL AIRBAGS
INDICTMENT FOR FALSIFYING EMISSIONS TESTS
NJGCA ATTORNEY ON REWARDS BILL QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS

 
If you own a repair shop, a convenience store, or a gas station, and you have employees (which is EVERYONE reading this message), pay attention! I have talked about this before, and I have warned you that I expected things to start blowing up in 2015.  Well, the bombing has begun.  For the past year, I've been warning you to beware of laws that we successfully kill in Trenton coming back to life in local governments, town by town.  Unfortunately, I have little to no ability to stop your mayor and/or council from passing these stupid laws. Mostly, because I don't have a way of knowing that they are proposed, until after it is already done. If YOU don't tell me that YOUR local government is considering something crazy, then I'll learn about it by reading it in the paper, after it has already been done. Once the horse is out of the barn, I have no way of getting him back in. On the other hand, if you alert me with sufficient time, I'll organize a full-court press at your local council meeting. The most valuable tool that I will rely on to prevail is YOU, and other small business owners, joining me to convince town officials to see our side of the issue and to change course. I'm totally unable to do this on my own without your help.
 
Here's an overview of what we are looking at:
 
PAID SICK LEAVE: On Monday, Bloomfield became the 9th town to mandate paid sick leave (the first town in 2015).  The ordinance requires businesses to give ALL employees one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. Employers with under 10 employees wouldn't be required to provide more than 24 hours of sick time per year. Those with over 10 employees would need to provide 40 paid hours of sick time. However, you can't just look at what this will cost in terms of the dollars you'll have to pay to the employees when they take sick time.  The biggest burden will be the book-keeping that you must preserve for YEARS, even after the individuals are no longer employed by you. Why? Because if they ever come back to work with you (for example, college students), the hours that they worked years earlier must be added to their present hours to calculate the sick time that they are owed.  ARE YOU SICK ABOUT PAID SICK LEAVE YET?...OH and even if you already provide employees with sick time you will still have  comply with the law.  Do ya think we should keep up the fight to kill this?
 
AGE TO PURCHASE TOBACCO:  The Princeton Board of Health is reportedly considering raising the age to purchase tobacco to 21 years old. Princeton would be the 4th municipality to adopt such a change, if enacted. Princeton's board of health has the authority to introduce and enact local laws and the ordinance does not require council approval.  A proposal is expected to be introduced in March, and come up for adoption in April. IF YOU RUN YOUR BUSINESS IN PRINCETON AND YOU SELL TOBACCO, PLEASE CONTACT NJGCA IMMEDIATELY SO THAT WE CAN MOBILIZE AN EFFORT TO STOP THIS PROPOSAL.
 
FEE FOR SINGLE USE PAPER AND PLASTIC BAGS: Princeton is also talking about adopting a 10-cent fee for single-use paper and plastic shopping bags. The proposed ordinance is currently in a research phase and has not yet been introduced by the town's council. If adopted, Princeton would be the only town in New Jersey with a fee on single-use bags. The Princeton Merchants Association plans to meet in March with proponents of the fee, to review the proposal.  AGAIN, IF YOU OPERATE YOUR BUSINESS IN PRINCETON AND THIS FEE WOULD IMPACT YOU, PLEASE CONTACT NJGCA IMMEDIATELY SO THAT WE CAN GET INVOLVED IN THE CONVERSATION TO STOP THIS EFFORT.
 
Finally, if this isn't bad enough, there is a proposal in the NJ Legislature to allow every town in NJ to set their own minimum wage.  The Assembly Labor Committee was supposed to consider this proposal yesterday, but the hearing was cancelled because of the weather.  This would sharply raise the cost of operating a business in some municipalities, and put some businesses at an extreme disadvantage to others, depending on how high each individual municipality raises the wage.
 
Another issue scheduled for action in Trenton yesterday was a bill to prohibit the manufacture, sale, or installation of counterfeit or nonfunctional air bags in motor vehicles. The bill was scheduled to be voted on by the entire Senate. In conjunction with our friends at AASP/NJ, I sent a letter to all NJ Senators encouraging them to vote YES to pass this bill.  Please click HERE to read the letter.
 
While I don't have any news about our efforts to privatize inspection facilities, I did hear rather disturbing news yesterday, about three men who pled guilty to installing simulators in vehicles that failed emissions inspections, in order to generate false data, thereby enabling the vehicles to pass inspection. The Acting Attorney General issued a press release about the guilty pleas on Monday. Yesterday, I issued a press release applauding the indictment of these men. Their sentencing is set for May 8th. The State is recommending 364 days in County Jail and three years of probation. Personally, I hope the judge doubles those penalties, to set an example for those who may think it is worth the risk to be dishonest.  These creeps have given you a black eye and put all repair shops under a cloud of suspicion.  These are the type of stories that have been thrust in my face over the past 4 years as I try to convince officials to close Central Inspection Facilities and require that ALL emissions inspections be performed in your shops.  How do you think this most recent episode has helped my case?
 
Finally, many of you have been calling about the Rewards Legislation that has now passed in both houses of the Legislature. The question is this: If Governor Christie signs S-2434 (Rewards Bill) into law, and I have already signed a contract with my oil company, (Shell, BP and Exxon already have rewards programs in place) will I be required to continue paying all fees and costs associated with the program for which I previously signed a contract and agreed to participate in? I consulted with NJGCA legal counsel to obtain a definitive answer.  Here is the reply:
 
Short Answer: NO -  Assuming that S-2434 becomes law, any contractual provision requiring that dealers be responsible for costs related to reward point programs would be rendered illegal and unenforceable. This would clearly apply to any costs triggered or incurred after the Effective Date of the law.  However, if a dealer tried to recover any costs incurred prior to the Effective Date of the new law, the answer is less clear, and a bit more complicated.
 
**My two cents after digesting the answer is this:  If we are successful and Governor Christie signs S-2434, then you are free and clear from the fees and costs that you previously agreed to. However, don’t start adding up all of the fees and costs that you have already paid prior to passage of S-2434, thinking that you will be reimbursed, because you can kiss the fees that you already have paid goodbye.

That's all for now!  Thanks for reading -- See you next week!

Regards,
Sal Risalvato
Executive Director

TRAINING CLASSES!!
-ALL CLASSES WILL BE HELD AT NJGCA HEADQUARTERS-
66 Morris Avenue - Springfield, NJ 07081 (Union County)

FUTURE CLASSES WILL BE ADDED UPON REQUEST AND ACCORDING TO DEMAND. CONTACT DEBBIE at 973-376-0066 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!

District Manager
Store Manager
Trucking Operations Manager

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

NEWS AROUND THE STATE: THE NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW

03/05/2015:
Editorial: Gov. Christie ignorance of transportation infrastructure problems shows lack of leadership
NJ is faced with the real prospect that it will not be able to pay for the upkeep of its bridges and roads if the state does not replenish the imminently bankrupt TTF by June. Yet Gov. Christie is telling us not to worry; there is plenty of time to make everything right. Speaking on his NJ 101.5 radio call-in show last month, Christie told listeners that the vital transportation fund was "not something to rush on, or rush through." Apparently the governor is not listening to Jamie Fox, his transportation commissioner, who has sounded the alarm about the dwindling time to address the state's dire transportation problems. In January, Fox warned that "the days of kicking the can down the field are over. We've run out of paying field." The Tri-State Transportation Campaign, a nonprofit advocacy and transportation policy organization called the fund's insolvency "a legitimate crisis" worsened by the fact that Christie's 2016 budget calls for slashing transportation spending by 8.4%, or about $119 million less than the current fiscal year.

03/03/2015:
Lottery tickets could soon be delivered to your home in N.J.
Assemblyman John Burzichelli has introduced a measure to allow courier services to deliver NJ lottery tickets throughout the state. Burzichelli said similar services are common in Europe. Currently, NJ lottery players can buy tickets only in person. An effort to institute an online lottery in the state failed in 2011. But Burzichelli said a few courier companies are interested in setting up shop here. And though nothing in state law bars such operations, he said that he introduced the bill to set up guidelines. Under the measure, couriers would have to register with the State Lottery Commission. They would be allowed only to charge a fee and would be barred from taking a piece of any winnings. The next step is for the Assembly's tourism and gaming committee to vote on the bill.  It would then need to be passed by the full Assembly and state Senate and then signed by Gov. Chris Christie to become law.
 
03/03/2015:
Biz groups sue to stop Trenton paid sick leave law
Six of NJ's largest business groups filed suit recently to stop Trenton from implementing a local law requiring businesses to give workers paid sick leave, as legislators continue to work on a similar statewide law.  The suit, filed in Superior Court in Mercer County, seeks a restraining order to prevent the ordinance from going into effect Wednesday. It was approved Nov. 4. The ordinance was one of eight enacted in some of the NJ's largest municipalities over the past two years, among them Paterson and Passaic, pushed by a coalition of anti-poverty groups, unions and others.  The groups sought to create momentum for approval of a statewide law, but the bill, approved by two Assembly committees, is still pending, and has not moved in the Senate. Senator Loretta Weinberg, the bill's Senate sponsor, said lawmakers are discussing possible amendments, such as whether the statewide law should supersede local laws.

03/02/2015:
Gas prices are rising despite ample supply, and here's why
Looking for scapegoat for the continuing rise of gas prices?  Look no further than the letter R - for refinery.  Refineries are the reason for the continuing climb in prices, even though there is plenty of crude oil available, said a AAA Mid-Atlantic spokeswoman. She predicts that the price will continue to shuffle higher due to a number of refinery-related issues. The bitter cold weather here and in the Midwest has led to a number of refinery problems in those areas and there is that pesky seasonal maintenance that refineries are currently doing, she said. Both are factors that can limit gasoline production, and can cause gas prices to rise, too. Be glad for plentiful supplies and low demand that is helping to put the brakes on an even higher price spike. However, AAA predicts prices will keep going up through the spring. "While ample U.S. fuel supplies should act as a ceiling on gas prices, recent refinery issues (especially due to extreme cold temperatures in the Northeast) have pushed gas prices higher the past few weeks." 

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 require12 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 973-376-0066 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.