KEY LEGISLATION:
Item-Pricing
Bill Set to Move
An item-pricing modernization bill, sponsored by Rep. Dave Hildenbrand
(R-Lowell), is scheduled to be taken up by the House Commerce Committee
on
Tuesday, June 21. HB 4636 represents years of hard work by MRA and its
members to modernize the current requirement that all items sold at
retail
have a price sticker affixed to them.
Under the bill, retailers would have the option of continuing to price
items
individually or seek an exemption for all items except food and
non-prescription drugs if they meet several criteria. To qualify for
the
exemption, the retailer would be required to:
* Meet a minimum 98-percent scanner accuracy rate, as determined by
regular
audits conducted by an independent firm;
* Clearly display (adjacent, above or below) prices with a readable,
detailed description of the item;
* Provide remote, receipt-printing UPC scanners for every 10,000 square
feet
of retail floor selling space, or non-printing scanners every 5,000
square
feet. In place of the remote scanners, a retailer could choose to install
at
each exit a price verification system to allow a customer to scan the
receipt and compare it to the database used by the retailer for printing
the
display signs for prices.
In addition, the measure doubles the fines for retailers to 20 times
the
amount (up to $10) for a price-scan error.
Considerable work has gone into bringing the United Food and Commercial
Worker’s Union (UFCW) on board with the legislation. At this point,
it
appears that the western Michigan portion of the UFCW will support the
legislation. Some problems with the southeast Michigan unions remain,
but an
affirmative vote in committee is expected.
Governor Granholm has met with the bill’s proponents on numerous
occasions.
She has not indicated if she will oppose the legislation, but the measure
should satisfy all of her requirements for an audit trail.
Violent Video
Game Legislation on Hold
It appears the House will not deal prior to the summer legislative recess
with Senate bills that would make it illegal to sell or rent extremely
violent video games to minors. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bill
Van
Regenmorter (R-Hudsonville) is reportedly occupied with other committee
agenda items at this time. Van Regenmorter has indicated, however, that
he
would prefer to bring the bills before his committee for debate at some
point.
Fair Tax Being
Shopped as Alternative to SBT Restructure
Republicans in the House and Senate have hinted that they may propose
an
alternative to the governor’s SBT restructuring for consideration
before the
summer recess. To date, no formal plan has surfaced, and they have been
content to hold town-hall meetings on the issue across the state. One
proposal beginning to make the rounds is a so-called Fair Tax plan.
Essentially, the Fair Tax would broaden the state’s sales tax base
to make
up the revenue of the SBT, the income tax and business-to-business taxes.
In
a letter to all state legislators and the governor, Roger Buchholtz,
chair
of an organization called Michigan Fair Tax, claims that the lost revenue
from eliminating Michigan’s SBT, business-to-business sales tax
and personal
income tax could be replaced by a 7-percent retail sales tax expanded
to
include services.
The concept of the Fair Tax is also being debated at the federal level,
where advocates seek to replace the current complex federal tax
systems—including personal and corporate income taxes, Social Security,
Medicare, gift and estate taxes—with a simple retail sales tax.
They claim a federal Fair Tax would lower prices an average of 23 percent
by
removing the cost of business income and payroll taxes now included
in
prices. They estimate it would save taxpayers $250-500 billion now being
wasted in complying with the current tax code. Finally, they claim it
would
dramatically lower tax rates for low- and middle-income Americans by
monthly
“prebates” to households to offset the sales tax on all purchases
up to the
poverty level.
For more detail on the Fair Tax concept, see www.fairtaxmi.org
or www.fairtax.org.
House Tax Policy Chair Rep. Fulton Sheen (R-Plainwell) is considering
the
plan and will offer it as one of several potential plans before the
committee when the issue arises again. He claims the Speaker of the
House
and others have discussed the Fair Tax issue, and it is gaining support
around the Capitol, including his personal support. No word yet on when
his
committee will take up this issue for consideration.
KEY BILL INTRODUCTIONS:
SB 0463, sponsored by Sen. Gary Van Woerkom (R-Muskegon),
to include video
games in crime of disseminating sexually explicit matter to minor.
SB 0464, sponsored by Sen. Laura Toy (R-Livonia), to provide for immunity
from prosecution for prohibition against sale of certain video games
to
individual under 17 years of age if rating system is followed.
SB 0534, sponsored by Sen. Samuel Thomas III (D-Detroit), to increase
start-up businesses filing threshold.
SB 0557 sponsored by Sen. Liz Brater ( D-Ann Arbor), to provide for
separation, collection, and recycling of mercury from mercury-added
items.
SB 0567, sponsored by Sen. Tom George (R-Kalamazoo), to create moratorium
for issuance of billboard permits.
SB 0568, sponsored by Sen. Jud Gilbert, (R-Algonac), to revise procedures
for permits for billboards.
SB 0572, sponsored by Sen. Shirley Johnson (R-Troy), to establish fund
for
regulating billboards.
SB 0577, sponsored by Sen. Raymond Basham (D-Taylor), to include volunteer
firefighters in heart and lung presumption.
HB 4741, sponsored by Rep. Brian Palmer (R-Romeo), to create conscientious
objector accommodation act.
HB 4946, sponsored by Rep. Joe Hune (R-Fowlerville), to modify tax rate.
HB 4948, sponsored by Rep. Kathleen Law (D-Ann Arbor), to provide for
separation, collection, and recycling of mercury from mercury-added
items.
HB 4896, sponsored by Rep. Dudley Spade (D-Tipton), to prohibit sale
of
candy or confection containing hemp, hemp flavoring, or marijuana flavoring
and provide penalties.
HB 4911, sponsored by Rep. Paula Zelenko (D-Burton), to eliminate exemption
for sale of copyrighted motion picture film.
HB 4912 & 4913, sponsored by Rep. Andy Meisner (D-Ferndale), to
eliminate
exemption for sale of food from vending machine.
HB 4914, sponsored by Rep. Meisner, to remove exemption for water
conditioning systems and bottled water coolers.
To view the content and current status of retail-related
bills, visit BillTrack,
MRA's legislative tracking database exclusively for members, at
www.retailbilltrack.com
If you are currently receiving Capitol F@cts by fax and
would like to receive
it via e-mail, please contact Kathleen Wilson at 517.372.5656 or
kawilson@retailers.com.
For back issues of online Capitol F@cts, visit MRA's main Capitol F@cts page.
Specific comments or questions regarding this bulletin
should be directed to:
Kathleen Wilson, Administrative Assistant to the Governmental Affairs
Office at
kawilson@retailers.com.
Michigan Retailers Association
603 South Washington Avenue
Lansing, MI 48933
517.372.5656
Toll-Free: 800.366.3699
Fax: 517.372.1303
govt_affairs@retailers.com
www.retailers.com
www.mallofmichigan.com
