STATE AND LOCAL PRIORITY LEGISLATION*
First Quarter-January 1-March 31, 2014
FOOD AND BEVERAGE TAXES AND REGULATIONS
Local & State Sweetened Beverage Taxes:
CA-SF (2 cents) and Berkeley (1 cent) sweetened soft drink tax proposals.
CT-Tax on beverages that are high in calories and sugar.
HI-Sugar sweetened beverage fee.
IL-Penny per ounce excise tax on sweetened beverages.
Other Food and Beverage Taxes:
OK-Mixed beverage gross receipts tax.
TN-Passed. Lowers the state sales tax on food and food ingredients for human consumption from 5.25% to 5%.
VA-Failed. Special tax on disposable containers including popcorn buckets.
Menu Labeling:
LA-Provides for Chain Restaurant Menu Labeling for businesses with 15 or more locations.
RI – Would require any business that sold food to post the calorie count for each product sold as well as the ingredients for each product.
Other Regulations on Food:
Food Handling
CA – Last year, legislation passed that prohibited bare hand contact with ready-to-eat food by employees. New legislation would repeal the new provision and revert to prior law requiring employees to minimize bare hand contact. Passed Assembly Health Committee and is moving to Appropriations.
Food Allergens
MD-Food allergy awareness requirements.
Bans and Warnings
CA-The CA Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Safety Warning Act would require warning labels on many sugar-sweetened beverages as well as on dispenser machines. It also requires businesses to keep a two-year record of all beverage sales and purchases. Heading to Senate Appropriations Committee. No date set yet.
CT-Labeling of food products that are packaged in materials that contain BPA.
MA –Labeling of products with GMO’s.
MD-Requires labeling on Genetically Engineered Food.
MD-Failed. Limits beverages in meals for children.
ME-Mandate labels on products sold that may contain Genetically Modified Organisms. An amended version that passed the House & Senate excluded retail servers and sellers of food. In addition, five contiguous states (including ME)would have to adopt a similar GMO labeling law.
NH-Failed. Mandate to label all GMO products.
NYC-Sweetened beverage cup size regulation. Status: Monitoring and waiting on New York State Court of Appeals ruling.
Puerto Rico-Failed. Would ban advertising non-nutritional food and beverages where the ads would be seen by minors.
RI-Mandate to label all GMO products.
Sales of Alcohol:
CT-Municipal notice of alcoholic liquor permits renewals.
LA-Liquor permits will be issued providing that beverage alcohol sales are physically segregated from all other concession sales.
MI-Passed. Several bills recently passed that revised the liquor control codes in Michigan. Please contact NATO of Michigan if you would like to get a copy of the revisions or have any questions about the new codes.
NY-Holding meetings with the State Liquor Authority (SLA) to lobby for alcohol in movie theaters.
TAXES
Admissions Taxes:
IL-Monitoring various municipalities.
ME-Failed. A panel was formed to explore measures to eliminate or reduce $40 million in tax cuts. The panel proposed an amusement tax which was strongly opposed by TONE and other businesses.
MN-Various local admissions taxes.
TN-Passed. Sevier County-Authorizes privilege tax (on admissions) in certain tourist resort counties. Tax not to exceed 3%.
VA-Carried over. Restructuring income tax which would add a sales tax for film admissions.
Film Rental Tax:
PA-HB 76 and SB 76 would abolish the local residential property tax and shift the burden for the schools to the sales tax. The bills would do away with the exemption for film rentals as well as exemptions on many food and beverage products and would allow counties to impose an additional 1% sales tax on all eligible items. This couldtake Philadelphia toa 9% sales tax, Allegheny County to 8% and any of the other 65 counties to 7%.
Local Options Tax:
AL-Local one percent sales and use tax levies in Chilton, Fayette and Geneva County.
CT – Creates a restaurant, food and beverage tax and hotel tax for municipalities.
IN-Failed. Authorizes Angola, Danville, Elkhart, Goshen, Greenwood, Rockville, and Rushville to adopt municipal food and beverage taxes.
IN-Passed. Provides that a county income tax council may adopt an ordinance to exempt from property taxation any new business personal property (other than utility personal property) that is located in the county.
MN-Several bills proposing local option sales and use taxes for various municipalities.
WI-Failed. Would allow counties to increase its sales and use tax under certain circumstances. Would require referendum.
Sales and Use Tax:
MD- Sales and use tax rate reduction
NE-Interim study of the sales and use tax base.
Corporate Tax:
IL-A graduated income tax and corporate tax legislation continues to be discussed. Dept. of Revenue is also proposing the elimination of a 1.75% vendor collection allowance for collection of sales taxes.
IN-Passed. Reduces the corporate income tax rate from 6.5% to 4.9%. Bill called for a Blue Ribbon Commission to study elimination of the business personal property while still insuring that local government services are provided for…
MD-Failed. Multiple bills with proposals to reduce the Corporate Income Tax Rate.
MINIMUM WAGE
State Legislation:
AK-Increases minimum wage to $9.00 an hour until December 31, 2015 and $10.00 an hour on and after January 1, 2016 and thereafter adjusted annually forinflation(50 cents an hour more than the federal minimum wage).
AL-Proposes a constitutional amendment to increase the state minimum wage to $9.80 per hour in three steps ending January 1, 2106. Would provide for an increase on January 1, 2020 and every three years thereafter based on CPI.
CA-Last year, the Governor signed a proposal that increased the minimum wage to $9.00 on July 1, 2014 and to $10.00 on January 1, 2015. New legislation proposes an increase to $13 an hour by 2017 and thereafter increases with inflation. Bill is currently in the Suspense File which will be taken up a later date. Will have to wait until then to see if it will go to the Senate floor for a vote.
CA– There is a group that is discussing ballot initiatives to further increase the minimum wage. Issue is spreading rapidly at the local level throughout the state.
CT-Passed. Increases from $8.25 to $8.75 on January 1, 2014 and from $8.70 to $9.15 on January 1, 2015, $9.60 on January 1, 2016 and $10.10 by January 1, 2017. Training wage for employees under 18 will be 85% of minimum for first 200 hours of employment.
DC-Passed. On July 1, 2014 the minimum wage will increase to $9.50 per hour; on July 1, 2015 to $10.50; and $11.50 on July 1, 2016. Beginning July 1, 2017 minimum will be increased tied to the CPI. If the federal wage should be raised at any time, the DC minimum wage will be federal wage plus one dollar per hour.
DE-Passed. Beginning June 1, 2014 the minimum wage will increase to $7.75 per hour and to $8.25 per hour on June 1, 2015.
FL-Minimum wage is already automatically increased (passed by ballot issue). Nevertheless, there is a proposal to increase the rate to $10.10 per hour commencing January 1, 2015.
GA-Raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour effective 60 days after approval. On January 1, 2015 and every successive year thereafter there would be a cost of living increase.
HI-Passed. A four- step hike in minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 by 2018.
IA-Several bills & study proposing increase in minimum wage.
ID-Raise minimum wage to $8.50 on July 1, 2014; $9.75 on July 1, 2015. Beginning September 30, 2016 and thereafter the minimum wage will increase/decrease tied to CPI. Provides for a 30-day training wage for employees under 18.
IL-Raise minimum wage to $10.65 by July 2016. Chicago also considering minimum wage hikes tied to new development.
IN-Failed. Would increase the state minimum wage from $7.25 to $10 and tipped employees from $2.13 to $3.00.
KS-Proposal to raise the minimum to $10.10 an hour by January 2015.
KY-Would raise the minimum wage to $8.10 on July 1, 2014: $9.15 on July 1, 2015; and $10.10 on July 1, 2016.
LA-Several minimum wage bills (including one for a constitutional amendment) that mention various amounts for the increases; most contain the automatic indexing.
OK-Proposes increasing minimum wage to $10.10 per hour.
MA-Senate & House both passed their own bills. Senate bill would raise minimum wage $1.00 per year beginning July 2014 until it reaches $11.00 in 2016 and future increases tied to CPI. House would increase by $1.00 per year in July 2015 and July 2015 then an additional 50 cents in 2016. If the two bodies cannot agree, then proponents can begin gathering signatures to put the issue on the November ballot. The ballot language is similar to the Senate bill.
MD-Passed. Minimum wage increases to $8.00 per hour for the 6-month period beginning January 1, 2015; to $8.25 on July 1, 2015; $8.75 on July 1, 2016; $9.25 on July 1, 2017 and $10.10 beginning July 1, 2018. If the employee is under the age of 20, the employer may pay the employee 85% of the minimum wage for the first six months of employment. This bill did not preclude counties from establishing their own minimum age rates. (PLEASE NOTE: THIS BILL REMOVED THE MINIMUM WAGE EXEMPTION FOR MOTION PICTURE THEATERS ALONG WITH THE OVERTIME EXEMPTION FOR A MOTION PICTURE THEATER OR DRIVE-IN.)
MN-Passed. Increase minimum wage for businesses grossing over $500,000-$8.00 in 2014, $8.50 in 2015, $9.50 in 2016; businesses grossing under $500,000 would increase to $6.50 in 2014; $7.25 in 2015 and $7.75 in 2016. Starting in 2018, wage would go up with inflation to be capped at 2.5%. Any Governor could stop the inflation hike if the economy is in recession.
MN-Withdrawn. Constitutional amendment to establish inflation adjusted minimum wage.
MO-Upon voter approval, act would raise the minimum wage to $10.00 per hour with an annual cost of living adjustment.
NE-Failed. Graduated increases to $9.00 per hour by January 2017.
NH-House passed a bill that would increase minimum wage from $7.25 to $8.25 in 2015, $9.00 in 2016 and increase per the CPI each year beginning 2017. Bill passed the house but faces an uphill battle in the Senate.
NM-Failed. Several bills proposing minimum wage increase.
SC-Would set the state minimum wage at the greater value of $10.00 per hour or the federal rate. Prohibits any political subdivision to set minimum wage that is greater than the federal rate.
TN-Sets the minimum wage at $8.25 per hour for certain employers who do not offer health benefits to employees and dependents; subject to exceptions for certain types of employment.
VA-Failed. Increase minimum wage.
VT-Would raise minimum wage from $8.73 to $10.10 per hour effective January 2015, with indexing thereafter. Heading to House for vote.
WI-Failed. Various minimum wage bills failed to pass.
WV-Passed. Raises the minimum wage to $8.00 an hour on January 1, 2015; $8.75 on January 1, 2016. Establishes 90 day training wage of $6.40 for employees under 20. If federal training wage increases, employer must pay whichever is higher.
WV-Provides an employee the right to decline to work more than 40 hours in a work week.
WY-Failed. Increase minimum wage to $9.00 per hour.
Minimum Wage Ballot Initiatives (Expected):
AL-Raise minimum to $9.75 per hour with automatic indexing.
AR-Raise the minimum to $8.50 per hour.
MI-Raise minimum to $10.10 per hour with automatic indexing.
SD-$8.50 per hour with automatic indexing.
Cities with Minimum Wage Initiatives:
Chicago, IL – Proposing $15.00 per hour.
Eureka, CA-$12.00 per hour
Las Cruces, NM
Los Angeles, CA
New York City
Oakland, CA
Portland, ME
Richmond, CA-City council approved increase to $12.30 per hour.
San Diego, CA
San Francisco, CA-Proposing $15 per hour.
San Jose, CA
Seattle, WA – Passed. $15 per hour
Sunnyvale, CA
CAPTIONING
State Legislation:
HI-Captioning and audio on all motion pictures.
NJ -Captioning on all screens.
RI-Bill proposed to require theatres with 10 or more screens to have captioning on at least one screen. Chair of committee instead commissioned a study to review several disability issues including captioning. TONE and MPAA will be members of the commission.
OTHER REGULATIONS
Movie Theatre Sound Levels:
CT- Prohibits exhibition of any moving picture or preview that exceeds eighty-five decibels. Commissioner of Administrative Services shall establish the procedure for checking maximum decibel levels to determine compliance. (Public hearing on March 4 and then no further action by committee.)
Paid Sick Leave:
CA – Mandatory sick leave accrued at the rate of no less than one hour for every 30 hours worked.
CT-Creates parity between paid sick leave benefits and other employer-provided benefits.
IL – Mandatory sick leave as high as one hour for every 22 worked.
MA-Separate bills were filed in the House & Senate which requires one hour paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. If the Joint Committee cannot agree, proponents can gather signatures to have the questions appear on the November ballot.
MD-Earned sick leave.
SC-Earned sick leave. One hour for every 40 hours worked.
ADDITIONAL STATE & LOCAL LEGISLATIVE ISSUES:
Business Practices
Civil Rights
Employment Practices
Film Production Taxes
Harmful to Minors
Sexually Oriented Business Regulations
*Please note that this is a first quarter report and is not the full scope of state/local legislation. Also some states are out of session during the reporting period.
Unless specifically noted as passed/failed, the bill had no action or is still pending.