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 Friday
Facts - Archives -
Month
of August 2003
Current
Week
August
29, 2003
Treasure's office is targeting retailers with new abandoned property
bill. Annual meeting invitations. LP Committee update. Other news and notes.
* Earlier this week CRMA, along with the Connecticut Food Association and the Connecticut Restaurant Association, met with representatives of
the State Treasure's office to review changes in CT abandoned property statutes, specifically changes in the gift certificate law.
* The legislature changed the definition of a gift certificate this year to include gift cards and eliminated dormancy or inactivity fees
that retailers can charge.
* In addition, they also made retailers honor gift certificates forever, but kept the requirement that any unused portion of a gift
certificate be escheated back to the state.
* The Treasure's Office also requires that retailers collect the address of the "owner" of the gift certificate. If the owner is
not known, the new law states the owner of the gift certificate, for escheating purposes, is the Treasure.
* The law is obviously one that we do not like, for a variety
ofreasons, and because of that we requested a meeting with the Treasurers
office earlier this week.
* During the meeting it became very clear to us that the Treasurer's Office is looking for a way to force out-of-state retailers to escheat
money back to CT, regardless of what the U.S. Supreme Court says on the matter.
* In fact, one member of the Treasure's staff was pretty open with her statement, "We want the money to come back to Connecticut not go to
Delaware."
* The Treasure's office did offer to continue to work with us on this new law and we will get back together with them in short order.
* It is important to remember that if you are selling gift certificates today, the new law requires that you place no expiration date
on them (we are working the treasures office to put a date certain i.e., three years) and that you gather the address of the owner.
* If you are not gathering the address of the owner, the new law states that the address would be the Treasure's office. So if you are not
collecting address you are technically not out of compliance.
* CRMA legislative committee has scheduled a conference call for Tuesday, September 2, 2003 at 3:00p.m. est. to discuss our meeting with
the Treasure's office and what our next step will be.
* If you are interested in joining in that call, please feel free to email us at
crma@crmaonline.com
or call the office at 860 - 527 - 1044.
CRMA annual meeting invitation sent to members
* We are off and running with the annual luncheon and awards ceremony.
* By now you should have received your invitation to the event and we encourage you to send in your reply as soon as you can.
* This year we are honoring a fine CT retailer, Bob's Discount Furniture, as well as having a great public speaker, Dr. Henry Lee.
* For more information about the luncheon, please visit our website www.crmaonline.com or call the office @
860 - 527 - 1044.
LP committee update:
* Last week we told you of our desire to restart our Loss Prevention committee. We are happy to report that the response from members wasvery positive.
* If you are interested and have not notified us, please do so today. You can email us a
crma@crmaonline.com or
call the office.
August
22, 2003
Plans for the CRMA annual meeting and awards luncheon finalized. Invitations will go out to members next week. CRMA announces Retailer of the Year. State Legislative update. CRMA to form Loss Prevention Committee. Sales Tax Free Survey reminder.
· Plans for our the CRMA annual luncheon and awards ceremony have been finalized and invitations will be mailed to members early next week
· This year’s annual meeting and awards ceremony will be held on October 29, 2003 in the Autorino Great Hall at the Bushnell in Hartford, CT.
· The Autorino Great Hall is part of the newly renovated Bushnell and is a beautiful room. The Max Restaurant Group will cater the event.
· For those of you not familiar with the Max Restaurant Group, they are the parent company of some of the finest restaurants in CT, including Max Downtown, Max a Mia, Max Amore, Max’s Oyster Bar, Trumbull Kitchen and Max’s Tavern.
· We are also pleased to announce that Dr. Henry Lee will be out keynote speaker.
· In addition, for those of you that are interested, the Bushnell is giving private tours to attendees prior to the luncheon at 11:00 am.
· Registration sheets and formal invitations will be sent out to retailers next week. We will also post registration information on our website, www.crmaonline.com
2003 Retailer of the Year – Bob’s Discount Furniture
· We are very pleased and honored to announce that this years recipient of the Connecticut Retail Merchants Association’s Retailer of the Year is Bob’s Discount Furniture.
· Bob’s Discount Furniture is a CT based company that is ranked among the top 40 furniture retailers in the nation.
· Bob’s has 12 stores, outlet centers and distribution centers in CT and a total of 20 in New England.
· They are a great Connecticut retailer and we are proud to announce them as this year’s retailer of the year. For more information on Bob’s Discount Furniture you can visit their website at
www.mybobs.com
News from the state capitol.
· Will they ever go home? The Legislature is scheduled to go back into special session on September 3, 2003 to finally complete their work – we think. You never really know these days.
· They are scheduled to address school construction and state bonding projects as well make any “technical changes to the state budget”. Hmm. We will have to keep a close eye on what they are up to.
· Meanwhile, we will be meeting with the state treasure’s office in attempt to clarify the new gift certificate law early next week. We will update you on those meetings as well.
· If you have concerns or questions about the new gift certificate law, please feel free to email us through our website at www.crmaonline.com or call our office at
860-527-1044.
CRMA Loss Prevention Committee to begin again:
· CRMA from time to time establishes committees to focus on specific issues facing retailers.
· One of our members recently reached out to us in attempt to re-establish an important committee – Loss Prevention.
· Over the next couple of weeks we will be reaching out to a number of retailers in Connecticut to begin organizing this important committee. Look for more information and progress reports on the Loss Prevention Committee in future Friday Facts.
· If you are interested in participating in the CRMA Loss Prevention Committee, please email us as soon as possible. We would like to gather as many retailers as possible to begin to work on every growing issue that pertains to loss prevention.
· Once again, you can email us through our website, www.crmaonline.com
Sales Tax Free Week Survey:
· Earlier this week we sent a survey to members asking them to help us gather information regarding activity during this year’s sales tax free week.
· If you have received the survey, please send us your information once the week has concluded. This is very valuable information that can be used as we work the legislature to keep the sales tax-free week on the books.
· If you need another copy of the survey, please feel free to visit our website at www.crmaonline.com or call the office at 860-527-1044.
August
15, 2003
State Legislators face deadline of midnight Saturday to finish work or governor will veto budget. Sales tax free week set to kick off on Sunday. Three quick questions. Retail news and notes.
State Legislators are faced with a gubernatorial veto if they do not complete the necessary business of finishing the state budget.
Governor Rowland has told legislators that he would veto the budget if they did not complete work on the budget implementers by midnight Saturday.
The budget implementers are the legal language behind the numbers in the budget. Legislators, leaders and administration have been meeting all week sometimes around the clock to finish the implementers.
Despite this effort they have yet to schedule a session to vote on the budget implementers. A scheduled session for Friday morning has been cancelled.
Legislative leaders have now scheduled a Saturday afternoon session.
For CRMA, the budget implementers have implications. Yesterday we sent to members a legislative bulletin alerting them of changes in the budget to the gift certificate gift card statute as well as potential changes to the way corporations are taxed in CT.
If members have yet to make calls or emails, please do so today. With all the confusion surrounding the state budget, we must still do our best to let legislators know the implications of the changes they are about to make.
If you would like to receive another copy of the alert. Please email us through our website, www.crmaonline.com or call the office at 860-527-1044.
Sales tax free week is set to begin August 17th.
We are very happy to report that our efforts at the Capitol this session have resulted in maintaining the states sales tax free week on clothing and footwear.
For the fourth consecutive year the sales tax free week will take place this year beginning Sunday August 17th and completing Saturday August 23rd.
All week, CRMA and the Lt Governor have been promoting the event by holding press conferences and doing radio interviews to help get the word out. We will continue our efforts next week as well.
Sales tax free week survey.
This year the success of sales tax free week is critical in more ways than one.
Remember: in the budget that was adopted, but has yet to be signed, the sales tax free week for next year has been eliminated
CRMA will go all out to lobby the legislature to continue the sales tax free week next year and beyond. But we need your help!
We are developing a simple survey that we will be sending to members. The information in the survey will help us as we gather the necessary data to support our contention to keep the holiday on the books.
We will be sending you the survey under a separate notice and hope that you would please help us by completing it and returning it to us in a timely fashion.
Three Quick Questions:
For this weeks three quick questions we asked Lt. Jodie Rell. The Lt. Governor
has been a strong supporter of retailers and the retail community over the years and has done a great job in helping promote the sales tax free week.
FF. Before we begin, we want to thank you for all your efforts in promoting the sales tax free week. You have been great. Have you notice anything different in preparing for this year's week than any of the other three?
JR: Not really. As with other years it gets off to a slow start but as the week picks
up the awareness picks up. More and more folks are telling me that they are disappointed that this is the last year. They understand the difficulty the state faces but are still disappointed. Also, many people are going to spend the child tax credit refund check next week, so that should give it a big boost
FF: What is the biggest challenge that faces Ct. today?
JR: Well, simply put it is jobs and the economy. Ct is not unique in facing budget problems. We are fortunate that we have diversified our economy so we are in better shape than other states. But, we still have to keep working on making the economy as strong as we can.
FF: Will we see a Governor Rell someday?
JR: It just seems like we ended one campaign so I'm not really ready for another, but I am giving it serious consideration.
For more information about the Lt. Governor and her office and projects she is involved with you can visit her website at
www.otlg.state.ct.us
Retail news and notes:
There was an interesting story on the front page of the NY Times business section how retailers are going back to future with some of there fall lines
(www.nytimes.com).
What to do with your tax break.
"We believe the $400 checks, in particular, are going to have a significant, positive effect on consumer spending," said Lynn
Reaser, chief economist at Banc of America Capital Management.
www.spokesmanreview.com
“A strong, 1.4 percent increase in sales at the nation's retailers in July -- the best showing in four months -- partly reflected the impact of the tax cuts, economists said. Back-to-school sales also are expected to be helped out, analysts said.”
www.spokesmanreview.com
August
1, 2003
State legislature adopts a state budget – finally. More work to be done in so called budget implementers. 3 quick questions. News and notes from the retail world and beyond.
· Finally – after months of discussions and weeks of closed to the public meetings, the state legislature this week gave final passage to a state budget.
· With the passage last evening in the state senate the only thing remaining to make the budget official is the governor’s signature.
· Before we get into the highlights of the budget, a comment: the process in adopting a budget has completely fallen apart. Essentially 6 to 8 people go behind closed doors hammer out an agreement (hoping that the numbers all add up) and then announce they have an agreement. Very frustrating and no way to run a railroad.
· With that off our chest on to the “highlights of the budget”
Retailer's find some good some bad included in the final bill
· For retailers the budget was truly a mixed bag, some good things as well as some bad.
First the bad news:
· Corporate surcharge extended another year at a higher rate. The budget increases the corporate surcharge currently set at 20% for 2003 to 25% for the income year 2004.
· Worse than that the bill creates an alternative combined reporting requirement.
· The bill allows the state to force companies to do combined reporting on corporate taxes with the state having the option of taking the higher of the two liabilities.
· This provision, which we strongly opposed, was added late in budget negotiations under the guise of “closing corporate loopholes” and is expected to raise close to $40,000,000.
· The budget also changes the definition of gift certificate to include gift cards. It eliminates dormancy fees and requires escheating after a three-year period. It also eliminates expiration dates on all gift certificates
The good news:
· The good news in the budget is that the sales tax did not increase. Legislators were tinkering with the idea but in the end decided on other ways to raise money. The rate will remain at 6%
· The sales tax holiday has been save for this year. Despite some reports in the media, the budget adopted will allow the holiday to take place this august but has it scheduled to be eliminated next year.
· The budget also restores an exemption from the sales and use tax for advertising and public relations services for developing media and cooperative direct mail advertising. The special session in February had imposed a 3% tax on such services.
· The bill also would require tax collection on remote sellers who do business with the state. Something we offered to legislative leaders during the regular session.
Rowland expected to sign this budget.
· Governor Rowland is expected to sign this budget sometime after another battle over the legal language of the budget and get it adopted by the legislature some time within the next 10 days.
· The budget implementers as they are called are the actual legal words that are behind the numbers. The legislature is expected to begin debating those within the next week to ten days.
· One of the things that we will be watching closely is the language that will implement the combined reporting tax that we referred to previously as well as the gift certificate language.
· The governor has pledged to the business community that he would work with the legislature to “fix the problems” with the combined reporting bill.
· We will stay on top of these issues and report any developments.
Three quick questions:
· This week’s guest interview is with Rich Flaherty, Vice President, First Cardinal Corporation.
· First Cardinal is an insurance administrator who administered a number of self-insured workers compensation groups for retail trade associations like
CRMA.
· First Cardinal and the Retail Association of Massachusetts (RAM) have built a tremendous self insured program that has saved retailers money while building up members for the association, a formula that with think can work for us.
FF: What is a Workers' Compensation Self-Insurance Group?
RF: It is a member owned not-for-profit corporation formed for the specific purpose of
providing statutory workers' compensation and employers liability coverage. Each
member has to be from a like or similar industry and each member must be a member of
a sponsoring association. No capitol is required but each member is jointly and severally
liable.
FF: How is this better than my current workers' compensation program?
RF: It is a member-controlled program with dividend potential. Interest income stays in
the group and profits are returned to the members. There is aggressive claims handling,
pro-active risk management to prevent losses and comprehensive excess insurance. You
can also continue to work with your local broker!
FF: Will members save money?
RF: That is the goal!!! The Massachusetts Retailers have averaged over 30% savings the
past 10 years by joining their association's Self-Insurance Group!!
· Members who are interested should call or email Tim Phelan at CRMA for more details, 860-527-1044 or
tim@crmaonline.com.
Retail news and notes:
· CRMA member Lord and Taylor announced this week that they would be closing two stores in CT, Meriden and Manchester.
· "Indeed, fashion’s marketing money has been stopping far short of America’s 39 million Hispanics — the country’s youngest (read: most fashion-conscious) and fastest-growing population, making it a must-win audience. "
Source: www.wwd.com
· "Hispanics represented half of all new consumers emerging between 2000 and 2001, as the group grew at a rate of 1.7 million people annually. The median age of Hispanics is just 24, versus 34 for non-Hispanics; 58 percent of the group is younger than 30, and 20 percent of teens are Hispanic." Source:
www.wwd.com
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