A little something for our hospitality members

Bruce Berke, Sheehan Phinney Capitol Group 

More often than not, these reports focus on the "big" issue(s) of the day and we overlook some of the everyday matters that are important to many of our members. This week we take a look at a few hospitality related issues as well as one of the "big" issues.

TIP POOLING:  The Senate agreed to the House-passed version of SB 49 this past Wednesday.  Back in January, the House passed SB 49 with amendment.  As amended, the bill clarifies the role and responsibilities of employers when it comes to tip pools. It says that, "Tips are wages and shall be the property of the employee receiving the tip and shall be retained by the employee, unless the employee voluntarily and without coercion from his or her employer agrees to participate in a tip pooling or tip sharing arrangement." It then goes on to say that, "No employer is precluded from administering a valid tip pooling or tip sharing arrangement at the request of the employee, including suggesting reasonable and customary practices, and mediating disputes between employees regarding a valid tip pooling or tip sharing arrangement." The bottom line is that it remains voluntary on behalf of the employee to participate in a tip pooling or sharing arrangement, but employers can suggest reasonable practices. The bill now goes to the governor for his signature.

NO LIQUOR IN GROCERY STORES:  The Senate killed HB 1251 on a voice vote. Throughout this legislative year, there has been a fairly vigorous debate about whether spirits or hard liquor should be sold in grocery stores. The State Liquor Commission argued against the idea saying that the state would lose money and branding in New England as the least expensive place to buy booze in the northeast. At the end of the debate on the bill, even establishing a committee to study whether liquor should be sold in grocery stores was unable to gain passage. 

ALLOWING KENO IN NEW HAMSPHIRE:  The Senate killed HB 1698 on a voice vote. This bill would only have established a study committee to make a recommendation on whether or not NH should allow keno. A vote like this shows just how anti-gambling (or at least an expansion of gambling) this Legislature is as they chose to not even study the matter.

WHERE DOES RGGI GO NEXT

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) or alternatively referred to as a "cap and trade" program was debated at length this week in the State Senate.  The House had sent the Senate a bill (HB 1490) that would repeal New Hampshire's participation in the RGGI program, a position that the House and Senate endorsed last year but it was vetoed by the Governor and his veto was sustained.

On Wednesday, the Senate amended the bill to restructure the allocation of the dollars in the program and to drop out of the RGGI program two other New England states or a New England state with 10 percent of the energy load also drops out.  This trigger and accompanying dollar allocation change was rejected by the House last year but this year it is uncertain whether the House will accept this compromise or not. 

Interestingly, a few weeks ago, there were several bills that the Senate refused to let in from the House because those issues had been defeated in the Senate last year. This Senate amendment of RGGI represents an issue that the House defeated last year so it will be interesting to see whether the House gives this repeat issue from the Senate the same treatment.