Prime Examples
by Belinda Judson
Executive Director, Mid-States NATO
Three recurring themes regarding state legislation: (1)
A legislative issue once defeated can, and frequently will,
reappear on state legislative calendars; (2) a cinema owner
must be familiar with state laws; and (3) it is vitally
important to be aware of what local lawmakers are proposing
in cities and towns where one operates cinemas. Allow me
to share with you some recent vivid examples of the importance
of these themes.
Recurring Legislation. Assembly speaker
pro tem Leland Yee had previously, and frequently, proposed
violent video
game legislation in the California legislature, to no avail.
Yee, a child psychologist, believes that these games present
a danger to children and serve as dramatic learning tools
for children because minors are “active participants” in
the violent games. Yee kept proposing and working on this
legislation until he finally gained support from not only
the California legislature, but some federal lawmakers
as well. Previous defeats never deterred Yee from revisiting
this legislation until it finally passed.
In October, Gov. Arnold Schwarzen-egger
signed legislation that would prohibit the sale or rental
of violent video
games to minors. The legislation also requires that the
violent video games be prominently labeled with an “18” and
that retailers in violation of the new law would face a
$1,000 fine for each violation.
Likewise in California is the recurring
issue of minimum wage. For the second time, Schwarzenegger
vetoed minimum
wage legislation, and the issue promises to be a contentious
one next session. Many other pieces of legislation have
reappeared all over the country because they are “hot” buttons
for particular lawmakers who are determined to see the
proposals through to fruition.
Ignorance Can Be Costly. In
Ohio an identity theft protection law provided that businesses
accepting credit or debit
cards cannot print the entire account number or the expiration
date of a credit/debit card on the receipt provided to
the cardholder.
| An attorney in Ohio “visited” businesses,
including movie theatres, and used his credit card
to check Compliance. If businesses were still printing
an expiration date, he wrote asking for payment of “damages” which,
by law, could be up to three times the actual damages
or $200 per violation, whichever was greater. |
While most retailers were aware of the fact
that they could not print the entire account number,
many were unaware
that they were not allowed to put the card’s expiration
date on the receipt. Since this law is different in various
states, often the card processors that businesses used
to set up their receipts in the proper form were also
not up to date on this particular provision. (When contacted
later, some processors said that they could not be expected
to keep up with the laws of every state.)
After the identity theft law was enacted,
an attorney in Ohio “visited” businesses, including movie
theatres, and used his credit card to check compliance
with the expiration date component. If businesses were
still printing an expiration date, he wrote asking for
payment of “damages” which, by law, could be
up to three times the actual damages or $200 per violation,
whichever was greater. The law also stated that the customer
could recover his reasonable attorney’s fees and
costs in a court proceeding. Other states have reported
similar stories.
Think Locally! As hard as it is to
keep track of state laws, it is equally vital for exhibitors
to monitor what
is happening in the city and town councils so the information
can be passed on to NATO’s regional affiliates.
In July the South Carolina county of Beaufort
(where Hilton Head is located) passed a 2.5 percent admissions
tax earmarked
for road improvements. The new tax took effect Oct. 1.
An article regarding the new tax stated that many business
owners, including the local theatre, didn’t even
know about the new tax and had not been collecting it.
The county finance director countered that
business owners should have been aware since there had
been newspaper stories
in July and a public hearing on the tax before it received
council approval. The day the tax was implemented the county
put ads in the local paper to remind businesses that they
should start collecting the tax. County officials say that
they fully expect to collect the tax from the merchants,
whether or not those merchants had been charging the tax.
Similarly, a 10-percent admissions tax was
passed in Alexandria, Va., this summer. Without warning
from operators in the
field, it was impossible to try to mount a campaign to
try to defeat the tax. While there is an effort underway
to get this tax rescinded, it is much more difficult to
do this than winning the battle before the tax is passed.
These are only two examples of the many
local tax initiatives that have cropped up recently in
counties, cities and towns
all over the country. The tax proposals have included not
only admissions taxes but additional sales and use tax
levies over and above what is charged on the state level – and,
in a couple of cases, county-wide advertising taxes. With
continued budget deficits, these tax issues will only become
more abundant at the local levels.
Minimum wage has also started to become
an issue for local lawmakers. Recently a ballot initiative
to raise the minimum
wage to $7.50 an hour was narrowly defeated in Albuquerque,
N.M. Santa Fe, N.M., San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
currently have ordinances that set the minimum wage higher
than the federal government’s.
A majority of the state sessions will reconvene
in January. Many with expertise in dealing with state legislation
have
remarked that the last couple of years have been the
busiest in recent memory. More of the same is expected
for the
new sessions.
Exhibitors who are armed with the knowledge that it pays
to be aware of state/local legislation and who enlist the
aid of their regional units will heighten the chances of
more success in dealing with industry-related state and
local legislation. These successes could mean more profitability
for you and fewer headaches down the road! 
