Jan Teague

President/CEO

360.943.9198, ext. 19

jteague@retailassociation.org

Mark Johnson

Vice President of Government Affairs

360.943.9198, ext. 15

mark.johnson@retailassociation.org

Tammie Hetrick

Vice President of Retail Services (RASI)

360.943.9198, ext. 13

tammie@retailassociationservices.com  

Jim Szymanski

State GOP to Name New Party Leader

By Jan Teague

Can the state Republican party find enough voters to support its platform values?  This seems to be the challenge for its new GOP party leader who will soon lay out a strategy to get more Republicans in office in a state that tends to have a lot of progressive voters.

Candidates for the GOP party leader note that people are not lining up to run for office these days and there isn't a solid farm team base to groom for future office.  One of the party's problems is that many people who own businesses come from more progressive Washington roots.  It's hard to find a candidate who agrees with all of the values on the party's platform.  And, while voters may be affiliated with a party they still vote on the values of the individual candidate.  Being somewhat progressive as a Republican is a winning formula in much of Washington state. 

The new party leader will have to steer its platform to issues that more people care about.  To put it simply- no new taxes and smaller government.  The message of the candidate has to resonate and not be a party speech about the party's values.  But some of the GOP party leader candidates don't agree.

Luanne Van Werven, one party leader candidate, thinks the message should not be moderate because she thinks it hasn't worked in the past.  She was recently quoted in a Seattle Times article by Jim Brunner who reported on her comments at an Ellensburg gathering.  But other factors are always in play when someone like Rob McKenna loses.  He was running at the same time that Barack Obama ran for President which brought out a lot of Democrats. Van Werven doesn't expect to have a litmus test for candidates, but we all know that if a candidate wants money from the party, they have to be in sync with the party.  It will be interesting to see the state GOP committee decides to support.

Health Care Reform Update for WA State

By Mark Johnson, VP Government Affairs

Last week I met with the Director of the Health Care Authority, the Medicaid Director and the Chief of Staff for the HBE , along with the, Secretary for the Department of Health and the Governor's health policy advisors.  Getting the Exchange up and running is the administrations main focus for health care at this time. 

The legislature passed legislation to establish a funding mechanism for the Exchange into the future.   The Exchange has applied for further federal grants.  Recently they received $1 million for planning.  They are hoping for approximately $50 million more to help get the program up and running.  One of the components to the Exchange is the Small Business Health Options Program or SHOP.  This will eventually be offered to small businesses as an option to traditional health care offerings.  SHOP will be launched in Clark County and later hopefully expanded to the rest of the state.

Some challenges exist.  Unfortunately only four plans were approved by our insurance commissioner for use by the exchange.  The Exchange was hoping for several more.  It is expected several plans will reapply in the future to expand the choices offered.  Probably the greatest challenge and unknown is how the computer system will work once the "go live" October 1 date arrives. Here is the issue:  the state has spent considerable time and money developing a system for Washington residents.  The federal government is developing a hub for the agencies that will be involved including the IRS and Homeland Security.  The question is will the state system and federal system smoothly and  link up when the switch is thrown?  The state is testing their system now.  The challenge is there is not much time left to fix any bugs before October 1. 

In closing, the one thing that we have to address as a state and nation is the first word of the ACA "affordable".  While we wish the Exchange well, the program being developed does little or nothing to address health care costs.  To make our system affordable we need to look at price transparency and how we deliver and pay for services.  Hopefully our legislature, the Congress and the President will continue their focus on driving down the costs of our health care system.  Otherwise the ACA is doomed to failure.

Coalition Opposes SeaTac Paid Leave Inititative

WRA has joined this coalition and has asked members to help support opposing this paid leave initiative. Not only does this push for paid sick leave, it increases the minimum wage to $15 an hour and requires the employer to offer full-time work to part-time existing employees before hiring additional part-time employees or subcontractors.  If successful, the effort will likely be proposed city wide.

The SeaTac Action Committee (SAC) meeting will take place on Wednesday, August 14th.  The meeting will be held at 6:00 PM at the Airport Hilton:

Hilton Seattle Airport and Conference Center

17620 International Blvd, Seattle, WA 98188

The speakers will be:

     Bill Bryant, Port of Seattle Commissioner

     Max Nelsen, Labor Policy Analyst, Freedom Foundation

We will also have an update from Smith and Stark, a strategic solutions think tank, regarding the job killing initiative in SeaTac.  

If you have questions regarding SeaTac's Paid Leave, please contact Tammie Hetrick at tammie@retailassociation.org.

Mandatory Paid Leave in Tacoma

The coalition opposed to the mandatory paid leave in Tacoma met on Monday.  Sources indicate that the labor group pushing this initiative could descend upon restaurants in the Tacoma area on August 27 and have sent notices to local restauranteurs indicating they plan on talking to patrons and employees about the paid leave initiative.  We would caution retailers in the Tacoma area to be aware of this effort and be prepared. 

A draft proposal of the Tacoma paid leave initiative has not been received by the city attorney's office, but it is possible they will try to have this on the ballot for 2014.  Another source indicated that labor's goal is to have different paid leave ordinances passed in each city so business will support a state wide paid leave in order to save costs to comply.

For more information about the Tacoma Paid Leave initiative please contact Tammie Hetrick at tammie@retailassociation.org.

State's Economy Picking Up

The Economic Revenue Forecast Council reported Monday that revenue collections are up over what was expected by a net of $50.1 million dollars.  This is good news for the state and for the legislature next year which will only have a short session to make any adjustments to its 2 year budget. 

Commercial property sales accounted for over half of the increase for the quarter adding $34 million dollars in good news.  Preliminary estimates are that  B & O tax grew 9.5 percent year-over-year and retail sales grew 6.4%. 

Employment is improving also with 6,600 jobs being added in June.  That's 2,900 more jobs than forecasted.   Many of these jobs were in manufacturing which added 700 jobs and aerospace adding another 500 new jobs.  Private service jobs added 4,600 jobs.  The state's unemployment rate held steady at 6.8 percent in June.

Initiative Campaign Spending Cost Millions

but not always.

Initiative 1183- Privatize liquor sales:  $20,115,326 in support; $12,351,656 opposed.  Yes vote: 58.7% No vote 41.3%

Initiative 1107- End sales tax on candy and soda: $16,042,629 in support; $426,828 opposed.  Yes vote 60.4% No vote 39.6%

Referendum 74- Same-sex marriage: $14,784,515 in support; $2,975,561 opposed. 

Yes vote 53.7% No vote 46.3%

Initiative 1240- Charter schools: $11,401,371 in support; $724,167 opposed.

Yes vote 50.7% No vote 49.3%

Initiative 330- Healthcare liability reform: $9,513,197 in support $6,168,557 opposed.

Yes vote 43.3% No vote 56.7%

Referendum 48- Publicly financed sports stadiums: $6,259,692 in support and $729,747 opposed.  Yes vote 51.1% No vote 48.9%

Cornfield highlighted a number of other campaigns and noted that this year Initiative 522 which deals with food labeling has already collected over $4 million dollars from both sides with the campaign just ramping up.

Follow link to election results

Although voter turnout in last week's primary was low, ballots still were being processed three days after the primary election was held.

On average, about one in four registered voters participated in the primary leading toward the Nov. 5 general election. As of last week, just over 10,000 remained to be processed from the primary.

ABC News highlights organized retail crime

One of the latest media exposes on the problem of organized retail crime was an ABC news report on a central Florida crime.

The ABC report pieced together a weeks-long investigation that resulted in 17 arrests. The report reviewed theft techniques and estimated that these crimes cost consumers $400 in higher prices each year so that retailer can recover some of their losses.

The National Retail Federation last week posted the 10-minute report on its blog.

WRA is active in the Washington State Organized Retail Crime Alliance, a network of retail security personnel who share crime information and organize to strengthen laws to combat these crimes.

During the 2013 session, due to the work of WRA and the anti-crime alliance, lawmakers voted to toughen penalties for those convicted of pharmacy robberies.

Source: National Retail Federation 

Safety tip: (one in a series)

New labeling coming for hazardous chemicals

The state is in the midst of standardizing its data sheets and labeling requirements for the potentially dangerous chemicals that employees use on the job.

Labor & Industries currently is in the early stages of making these changes. The department will follow with more announcements as details develop.

What we do know is that Material Data Safety Sheets will wind up being known as Safety Data Sheets as part of a Globally Harmonized System of classification and labeling.

Employers will be expected to have completed training of employees regarding the changes by June of next year, 2014. Also, employers must keep data safety sheets in the workplace for each hazardous chemical used on the job. These sheets must be made part of a company's Accident Prevention Program.

Hazardous chemicals are substances that at least one study concludes can cause acute or chronic health effects after exposure. The potential hazards that can result include lung, skin, eye and mucous membrane damage, some of which eventually can result in disease.

Hazardous Communication Plans must be fully in force by June of 2016. These changes are coming about due to requirements outlined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

WRA employs Rick Means as a Safety & Claims Administrator available to members to help draw up safety plans and suggest topics for safety meetings. Contact him at 360-943-9198, Ext. 18 or rick.means@retailassociationservices.com.