Businesses Blast Paid Family Leave At Senate Committee Hearing Read
Join NJBIA’s Rapid Response Team Read
At NJBIA-Merrill Lynch Forum CEOs Present Diverse Outlooks Read
Good Budget This Year, Treasurer Says, But Financial Problems Loom Read
Make the Most of Your NJBIA Membership with Money-Saving Programs Read
Eleven Projects Win 2007 New Good Neighbor Awards Read
ASK THE EXPERTS! Workforce Training Grant Available Read

NJBIA was joined by dozens of business owners and managers recently to blast a paid family leave bill that would mandate ten weeks of paid time off for workers at every business in the State.

S-2249 (Sweeney/Buono) would force hundreds of thousands of small businesses (those with between two and 50 employees) that are exempt from existing unpaid leave laws to cope with a massive new mandate.  Despite strong opposition to the bill, the Senate Budget Committee voted on May 24 to release it to the full Senate.  Committee passage means the bill could come up for a vote in the Senate at any time.  Send a message to your legislators to oppose this bill by visiting NJBIA’s Membership Alert.

Testifying before the committee, NJBIA President Philip Kirschner said the ability of employers to operate their businesses would be damaged by such a broad, one-size-fits-all mandate.  Kirschner said enactment of paid leave would force businesses to pay for temporary workers (if they can find them at all), overtime, and the lost productivity that comes with the loss of key employees.

“This mandate will have a profoundly negative impact on employers, especially small businesses, and on their economic competitiveness and ability to create jobs,” Kirschner said.

It is unrealistic to expect employers to do without employees for almost three months.  It will hurt businesses’ ability to meet customers’ needs and, in turn, damage their relationships with their customers.  This mandate would also put New Jersey employers at a competitive disadvantage with competitors in other states.

The Legislature should give employers some credit.  Businesses work with their employees to balance work and family life.  However, employers need the flexibility to manage their workplaces.  A one-size-fits-all mandate does not take into account the differences between the small bakery and the large hospital.  Employers use common sense to balance the needs of work with employees’ personal needs.  For more information, contact John Rogers at ext. 209.

These are key bills that NJBIA has been working on most recently in the current session of the State Legislature.  The scorecard on each piece of legislation includes the bill number and house of origin (Assembly or Senate), the sponsors, a summary of the bill, its status, and NJBIA’s position.

Paid Family Leave
S-2249 (Sweeney, Buono)
Mandates ten weeks of paid family leave for workers at every business in the State.
Status:  Ready for final Senate vote
Position:  Oppose

Mental Health Insurance
A-2512 (Gordon, Johnson)/S-807 (Vitale, Buono)
Mandates that health insurance plans sold in New Jersey’s regulated market provide unlimited coverage for the treatment of hundreds of behavioral disorders and substance abuse, driving up the State’s already high health insurance costs. 
Status:  Ready for final vote
Position:  Oppose

Environmental Penalties
S-2650 (Buono, Vitalie)
Would increase penalties for environmental bad actors but would also create regulatory nightmare for other businesses by imposing criminal penalties for even minor violations.  Imposes draconian penalties of up to $50,000 per day and makes jail time possible for minor paperwork violations. 
Status:  Pending in Assembly and Senate Environment Committees
Position:  Oppose

Business-Closing Notification
A-1044 (Van Drew, Johnson)/S-472 (Sweeney, Doria)
Requires employers with 100 or more employees to provide 90 days notice if they terminate 50 or more employees in any 30-day period.  If employers miss even a single day’s notice, they must pay one week of severance for each year an employee has worked. (The requirements of this legislation far exceed the federal WARN Act requirements.)
Status:  Approved by Senate/Awaits Assembly vote
Position:  Seeking conditional veto by the Governor

Energy Audit Funding
A-3859 (Karrow, Chivukula)
Helps companies reduce energy costs by allocating $6 million of their annual energy-tax revenues for energy-efficiency audits.
Status:  Pending in Assembly Appropriations Committee
Position:  Support

UEZ Sales Tax Exemption
A-3938 (Burzichelli, Fisher)/S-2491 (Sweeney)
Restores the full sales-tax exemption for businesses based in New Jersey Urban Enterprise Zones (UEZs) that have no business locations outside a UEZ.  Lifts the requirement that these businesses pay the full sales tax and then file for a rebate.
Status:  Pending in Assembly Budget and Senate Economic Growth Committees
Position:  Support

Relocation Tax Credits
A-1696 (Fisher, Van Drew)/S-80 (Kean)
Amends the Business Retention and Relocation Assistance Act to extend tax credit eligibility to businesses relocating 50 or more employees (now 250 employees) within New Jersey.
Status:  Referred to Assembly
Budget Committee
Position:  Support

NJBIA members who have a personal or business relationship with a State legislator can make the difference between the defeat or passage of an antibusiness bill like paid family leave.  That’s why NJBIA wants you to become part of our Rapid Response Team, a group of NJBIA members who will reach out to legislators whom they know when a critical issue arises.  NJBIA will alert you to the issue and provide you with background and arguments bolstering the business community’s point of view.  We know your time is valuable, so we will ask for your help only when it is essential.  To sign up, please fill out the confidential online form at www.njbia.org/rapid or contact Frank Robinson at 609-393-7707, ext. 225.

In spite of skyrocketing health insurance costs, the Assembly Appropriations Committee recently released a costly health insurance mandate that would force employers buying insurance in New Jersey’s regulated market to pay for unlimited coverage of all behavioral disorders and substance abuse treatment.

The bill, A-2512 (Gordon, Johnson)/S-807 (Vitale, Buono), now heads to the full Assembly for final legislative approval and could be scheduled for a vote at any time.  Access NJBIA’s Membership Alert at www.njbia.org to send a message opposing the bill to Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts and your Assembly representatives.  The last thing employers need is higher healthcare costs.

According to NJBIA’s 2007 Health Benefits Survey, health insurance costs rose by an average of 11.3 percent in 2006 and have increased by a compound 80 percent over the last five years.  Soaring costs have forced many small businesses to drop health insurance coverage altogether because they can no longer afford it.  The survey showed that 82 percent of companies with 2 to 19 employees provided health insurance coverage in 2006, compared with 92 percent in 2003.

Testifying against the bill, NJBIA Vice President Christine Stearns pointed out that for small employers and individuals, mental health and substance abuse treatment is already covered with reasonable limits to keep insurance more affordable.

“New Jersey employers are facing a crisis, and not only is the Legislature doing little to help them, it’s actually making the situation worse,” Stearns said.  “Legislators should be working to lower health insurance costs, not increase them.”

At the NJBIA-Merrill Lynch Economic Forum in May, a Barron’s columnist said New Jersey is well positioned to weather an economic downturn, while a panel of top executives agreed that while New Jersey has many fine qualities as a business location, high taxes and a poor business climate are hampering its growth.

The keynote address was given by Michael Santoli, author of Barron’s Streetwise column.  The panelists were Douglas Conant, President & CEO of Campbell Soup Company; William Marino, President & CEO of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield; and Larry Sorsby, CFO of Hovnanian Enterprises.

While the executives presented differing outlooks for their industries, they all agreed that high taxes and a poor business climate in New Jersey had hampered their growth.  Marino, for instance, said he has seen an erosion of New Jersey’s big advantage over other states in income and employment in high value industries like pharmaceuticals and technology.  That is cause for concern because Horizon relies on a growing economy to find new customers.

Sorsby said the short-term outlook for the housing market is poor but is solid in the long term.  Right now, Hovnanian and other home builders are weathering a steep downturn in the housing market.  He described the current housing slump as a “predictable cooling off period.”

Sorsby said New Jersey’s anti-development attitude and a regulatory environment that blocks the construction of thousands of homes adds $40,000 to $80,000 to the cost of those that are built.

Meanwhile, Conant said Campbell Soup is “in growth mode” and believes southern New Jersey is ideal for its corporate headquarters, which is located in Camden.  In fact, Campbell’s hopes to break ground soon on a major expansion.  Its proximity to the greater Philadelphia area puts it near 88 colleges and universities, making it a great place to recruit talent.

During his keynote address, Santoli pointed out that New Jersey had already undergone a shift from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-based economy that other states are still experiencing.

“This mandate will have a profoundly negative impact on employers, especially small businesses, and on their economic competitiveness and ability to create jobs.”

—NJBIA President Philip Kirschner on the family leave mandate released by the Senate Budget Committee.

The fiscal year 2008 State budget that the Legislature is expected to adopt shows the State to be fiscally balanced, according to NJ Treasurer Bradley Abelow.  But high debt and unfunded pension and health-benefit liabilities loom, and these problems will not be solved easily, Abelow told more than 100 business people at NJBIA’s Meet the Decision Makers event last month.

“The budget is a good way to talk about where we are as a State, and we’re in better shape than last year,” Abelow said.  He did not anticipate anything major in the budget debate because the budget is balanced and provides a large amount of direct property tax relief.

While the State is on solid financial footing for now, the future is foreboding as debt payments and pension and health-benefit obligations will eat up a growing portion of State revenues.

For example, debt service (interest payments on $30 billion of State debt) will grow to $2.7 bil-lion next year, Abelow said.  At the same time, New Jersey’s pension system has a $25 billion unfunded liability, and the unfunded liability for retiree health benefits could be as high as $80 billion, leaving no money for new schools, transportation projects, and other infrastructure that is essential for economic growth, he said.

Such financial constraints are the reason the Corzine administration is investigating asset monetization—leasing or securitizing toll roads like the Turnpike for a one-time large payment.  The alternatives to asset monetization are not practical, Abelow said.  New Jersey really cannot raise taxes much more, at least not in a way that would meaningfully address long-term finances.  Likewise, so little of the State budget is discretionary that any effort to cut spending would be limited.

NJBIA Thanks its
2007 Meet the Decision Makers Sponsors

AT&T
Anheuser Busch
Atlantic City Electric
Bank of America
BP
Cole, Schotz, Meisel, Forman & Leonard PA
Constellation NewEnergy
Exelon Corporation
Federal Express
Fidelity Investments
Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc.
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield
Jersey Central Power & Light Co., A FirstEnergy Co.
Langan Engineering & Environmental Services, Inc.
New Jersey Resources
New Jersey Society of CPAs
NJ Community College Consortium for Workforce & Economic Development
NJM Insurance Group/NJM Bank FSB
Novartis Pharmaceuticals
PSE&G
Schering-Plough Corporation
United Water
Verizon

Lower the Cost of Your Shipping, Communications,
and Credit-Card Services with Our Money-Saving Programs

As an NJBIA member, you can lower the cost of shipping, telecommunications and credit-card-processing services by accessing money-saving programs available exclusively to members of the Association.  In addition, if you are a large energy user, we can help you manage your energy costs.  If you are not already enrolled in one or more of the money-saving programs described below, please read on.  For more information, call 609-393-7707, ext. 230, or send an e-mail to memberservices@njbia.org.

You can also visit NJBIA’s Member Resource Center to find more information or to sign up online for any of these programs.

Shipping
NJBIA’s discount shipping program is great for companies of all sizes.  Whether you ship overnight letters, single packages, truckloads or overseas, our shipping program can save you 20-60 percent.  There are no costs or obligations when you enroll in the program, and there are no minimum shipping requirements.  The discounts apply towards inbound, outbound, and third-party shipments.

For more information, call 1-800-MEMBERS (636-2377).

Credit-Card Processing
Through NJBIA’s partnership with Cornerstone Association Merchant Services (CAMS), you can lower your credit processing costs and integrate into one system the latest non-cash transaction programs such as PIN-based debit, check guarantee programs and signature capture.  You can also receive free credit-card processing equipment.  CAMS can also provide your business with free gift and program-reward cards.

For more information or to get a free customized quote, call 877-445-8195.

Telecommunications
Your business relies on your telephone and Internet services to stay connected to prospects, customers and vendors.  With Access Point, Inc., a company that specializes in serving small and medium-sized businesses, NJBIA members can save money on reliable local and long distance calling, as well as Internet access.  From intrastate to international, calling cards to conferencing, Access Point is your single point for business communications.

For more information, call 888-465-2420 or e-mail njbiaprogram@accesspointinc.com.
.
Energy
Member companies whose monthly electricity bills are at least $5,000 can lock in pricing and protect themselves against the volatility of an unpredictable energy market.  NJBIA and Constellation NewEnergy have put together the right contract to help your business manage its energy costs.  With a set rate for the term of the contract, the program offers a fixed price that provides long-term price stability and budget certainty, no change in distribution service from your utility, and access to retail choice credits if applicable.

For more information, contact Deirdre Krebs at 973-252-8888.

For more information on these and other programs
Visit NJBIA’s Member Resource Center.

Eleven construction projects, involving everything from a renovated stagecoach tavern to a $167 million telecommunications center, were honored on June 1 at the 47th Annual New Good Neighbor Awards Luncheon.  Hosted by NJBIA and New Jersey Business Magazine, the New Good Neighbor Awards Luncheon brought together 200 builders, architects, engineers and others in the development community to honor those responsible for some of the State’s most impressive new commercial construction and renovation.

NJBIA Thanks Its 2007
New Good Neighbor Luncheon Sponsors:

Barr & Barr, Inc.
Building Contractors Association of New Jersey
Hi-Tek Coatings Corporation
Hovnanian Enterprises, Inc.
Jersey Central Power & Light Co.,  A FirstEnergy Company
Killian & Salisbury, PC
Merck & Co., Inc. 
MyWireless.org
NJ Economic Development Authority
PSE&G
Wachovia Corporation

New Good Neighbor Awards
2007 Winners

Business Development Incubator at New Jersey City University
Jersey City

Hovnanian Enterprises Inc.
Red Bank

Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation
West Orange

Laurel Creek Corporate Center
Mt. Laurel

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Basking Ridge

Middle Atlantic Products, Inc.
Fairfield

Plainfield Animal Hospital
South Plainfield

The Publick House
Chester

Verizon Operations Center
Basking Ridge

Wachovia Bank, N.A.
Trenton

—Special Project—
Somerset County Vocational School’s Performing Arts and Technology Center
Bridgewater