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 Friday
Facts
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the Friday Facts Archive for past articles
April 11, 2008
Delivery Tax Update
Other Capitol News and Notes
New England ORC Trade Show Set for this Year
Member Services
Retail News and Notes
• Last week we reported to you that the Finance Committee was
considering a new tax – or was it an old tax – on “delivery
services”.
• This week we hoped we could give you a more complete update
on what was meant by that but unfortunately we have not yet
seen a written explanation of what it means.
• So, we are again left to speculate what the key legislators
involved intend for it.
• One of those key legislators, Eileen Daily (D – Westbrook)
told us that she is not going after in-state retailers or
those retailers that are currently doing business in the
state.
• It appears that she and her co-chair, Cam Staples (D New
Haven¬, want to go after those businesses that ship products
into CT and do not “voluntarily collect” CT sales tax on
merchandise and shipping charges.
• But, because there was no public hearing on this concept,
nor is there any drafted language we can only speculate.
• We will continue to closely monitor this issue and update
you with more information.
Other Capitol News and Notes
• One more note from the “delivery tax” issue, the Speaker of
the House came out this week and basically said the issue was
a non starter.
• We hear that got him in hot water with some of his own
members of the Finance Committee who felt he was not backing
his own Chair – Cam Staples.
• The Judiciary Committee is meeting today and among the
number of bills they are considering is SB 217 “An Act
Mandating Employers Provide Paid Sick Leave to Employees”.
• Negotiations are on going between the Governor’s office, key
legislators and the business community over a privacy
protection bill. CRMA is included among a small group of
business representatives in the negotiations.
• Join us on our weekly legislative conference calls to review
how that issue is progressing as well as all of the bills we
are following this session.
• Our next legislative call has been moved to Thursday, April
17, 2008 at 10:00 am.
• Please call Cathy in our office for more information.
• Also, a reminder that our annual legislative reception is
scheduled for Wednesday April 23, 2008 from 5:00 – 8:00 pm in
the Old Judiciary Room of the State Capitol.
• We are co-hosting this event with the Connecticut Chapter of
the ICSC and we encourage all of our members to attend.
2nd Annual NE ORC Trade Show &
Symposium.
• The date and location has been set for our second annual ORC
trade show.
• This year the event will be held on Wednesday, September
10th at the DCU Center in Worcester, MA.
• We are doing this in conjunction with the other New England
Retail Associations and will be sending out sponsorship and
registration materials right away.
• Please hold that date on your calendar as we look to build
off a very successful event from 2007.
Member Services
• The CRMA Foundation has partnered with Castle Branch to
offer CRMA members 15% off background check services when you
mention the CRMA Foundation in your correspondence with them.
• For more information on Castle Branch please go to
www.castlebranch.com.
• To get started, please contact Charlie Kessler at
1-888-723-4263 ext 7118. Don’t forget to mention the CRMA
Foundation to receive the 15% discount on your services!!
Retail News and Notes
•
Banana Republic goes green one step at a time
Banana Republic's new Green Collection incorporates
sustainable materials such as soy silk, organic cotton and
bamboo into its clothes. Although the line also makes use of
non-"green" fabrics, a company representative says it's a
start.
Los Angeles Times (free registration) (4/6)
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Golf fashion goes beyond the plaids
Calvin Klein, Lilly Pulitzer and other high-end shops have
joined the growing list of fashion designers interesting in
tapping the golf market. Lacoste showed its expanded golf
collection offerings at this year's PGA Merchandise Show after
being away from the field for seven years. "It doesn't
surprise me these brands would be interested," National Golf
Foundation President Joe Beditz said, adding that the nation's
28.7 million golfers are "very attractive for apparel
manufacturers."
The Wall Street Journal (free content) (4/7)
•
Starbucks tests self-pour coffee
Starbucks is testing a pour-your-own coffee concept in a
continued effort to reverse recent customer declines.
Customers now can pay before or after obtaining their own
coffee from a brewer located near the condiment bar.
Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg (free registration) (4/4)
April 4, 2008
Finance Committee Threatens New Tax on Delivery Services
Judiciary Committee Leaves Some Things on the Table
Other News and Notes from the State Capitol
Member Services
Retail News and Notes
• On Wednesday of this week the tax writing committee of the
General Assembly, the Finance Revenue and Bonding Committee,
passed a bill out of committee that has us confused and
nervous at the same time.
• The committee passed HB 5844 “An Act Concerning a Municipal
Share of the Hotel Occupancy Tax”.
• In this bill the committee chairs announced they were adding
new language to the bill to create a “tax on delivery service”
and the money raised from that tax would be used to help
cities and towns.
• What is unclear from the meeting is what the committee means
by tax on delivery service. Are they going to force retailers
to charge for delivery of products and then force us to
collect a 6% tax on that? Or if you are a retailer that
charges for delivery are they going to force you to have a
separate transaction with customers for that charge and
collect the sales tax on that transaction?
• Quite honestly, nobody we talked to, including some members
of the Finance Committee, are quite sure what is meant by all
of this and if you are confused after reading this then join
the club.
• All we can tell you at this point is the Finance Committee
is looking at trying to raise money to give to cities and
towns and they are looking at “delivery service” as a possible
solution.
• We will obviously stay on top of this issue but until we
have something to look at, (the committee passed this without
any language if you can believe that!), we are left to
speculate and worry.
Judiciary Committee Leaves Some Things
on the Table
• Some good news and some not so good news from the Judiciary
Committee.
• First a quick background.
• This past week CT had another terrible tragedy involving a
home invasion that reignited the debate over tougher penalties
for repeat violent criminals.
• That story prompted a back and forth between the Governor
and the Democratic legislative leaders on whether CT should
have a three strikes law.
• That debate spilled over to the Judiciary Committee when the
Republican members of the Committee wanted to use any bill on
the Committee agenda for their meeting on Tuesday that had a
penalty provision as a way to add a three strikes provision.
• Two bills we are interested have penalty provisions.
• One is our ORC bill, SB 5761. The other is a bill banning
the use of plastic bags, SB 5717.
• Rather than take up those and other bills the Judiciary
Committee adjourned its meeting.
• We were confident they would meet again on Friday to take
action on these bills but late yesterday the Committee leaders
decided the three strikes issue was still to hot and cancelled
its meeting.
• So, the good news is that because of the cancellation of the
meeting the banning of paper bags bill is dead, but the bad
news is so is our ORC bill.
• We will keep working the ORC bill and remain confident that
we can get it passed before the session is over May 7th.
Other News and Notes from the Capitol
• At last count there were 4 product safety/toy recall bills
we were following: HB 5650, HB 5601, HB 5025 and SB 524.
• If you are interested in these bills please call our office
today for more information.
• Both the House and Senate were in formal session this week
but are not scheduled to go back in again until April 9th.
• Invitations for our Annual Legislative Reception are set to
go out to members next week. Please set aside the evening of
April 23rd to come to the Capitol and visit with your local
legislator.
Member Services
• The CRMA Foundation has partnered with Castle Branch to
offer CRMA members 15% off background check services when you
mention the CRMA Foundation in your correspondence with them.
• For more information on Castle Branch please go to
www.castlebranch.com.
• To get started, please contact Charlie Kessler at
1-888-723-4263 ext 7118. Don’t forget to mention the CRMA
Foundation to receive the 15% discount on your services!!
Retail News and Notes
•
TJX settles with MasterCard over data theft -- Personal
Data ...
TJX settles with MasterCard over data theft. Associated Press:
April 3, 2008 Popular stories: Business News. Marylander gets
big slice of Web pie
www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.tjx03apr03,0,4755336.story
- 63k Cached
-
Similar pages
•
Wal-Mart CEO wants businesses involved in health care
Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott is "not particularly encouraged" by
U.S. businesses' lack of interest in tackling health care
issues. Scott believes that businesses should be more involved
in the discussion about what direction health care will take.
Financial
Times (4/2)
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Office Depot, Staples offer free tax-return copies
Staples and Office Depot will offer taxpayers free copies of
their 2007 returns. Office Depot will allow customers to print
up to 25 pages free from Sunday through April 15, and Staples
will allow up to 20 free pages on April 15.
Promo Magazine (4/1)
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