The Georgia Legislature will begin the 2010 Session in just one week. It will prove to be a challenging year for legislators and retailers alike. Please follow the Capitol Retail Report every week to stay on top of issues that may affect your bottom line.

                                                   “When Retail Works, Georgia Works”

New Address and Telephone Numbers

The Georgia Retail Association has a new address and telephone numbers. Please note that a change in the office phone number. The correct number is 678-814-4176.

Georgia Retail Association
7165 Havenridge Way
McDonough, GA 30253-8510
678-814-4176
678-814-4178 (fax)
678-523-1765 (cell)
www.georgiaretail.org

January 8th Hearing Set on Smash and Grab

Rich Golick, Chairman of the Non-Civil Judicial Committee has set a hearing on the proposed Smash and Grab legislation for Friday, January 8th at 9:30 AM in the Capitol.

The Georgia Retail Association has worked with a Coalition on Smash and Grab Thefts since last summer to shape the new legislative effort.

The Coalition is comprised of retailers, police officers and prosecutors.

Smash and Grab thefts have been an enormous problem for Atlanta area retailers in 2008 and 2009.

Chairman Golick plans to include the legislation in his anti-gang package.

What Lies Ahead for the Georgia Legislature for 2010?

What Lies Ahead for the Georgia State Legislature in 2010?

Sales Tax Collection - Senator Chip Rogers (left) evidently still wants to look at reforming sales tax collections by privatizing sales tax collections and allowing local governments to audit businesses instead of the state. He is looking at creating a clearinghouse where local governments would partner and retailers to submit one set of paperwork to satisfy all these jurisdictions.

Property Taxes - Senator Rogers also sees property tax reform as a priority, along with strengthening of rules requiring that foreclosures be used when figuring a taxable value, a requirement that a property's sale price would be the taxable value for at least the first year and a requirement capping annual value increases by some percentage.

Budget Woes - New Senator Buddy Carter (right) sees the budget as a real challenge since Georgia is facing its worst budget shortfall in its history. After making over $3 billion in cuts that were difficult at best, further cuts will have to be made at the very core of basic services and will be even more unpopular.

Job Creation - Georgia's unemployment rate has exceeded the national average for 23 out of the last 24 months and remains well over 10 percent. Therefore, the legislature may well seek to pass legislation which will attempt to create an environment in Georgia conducive to job growth.

Transportation - It looks very likely that the legislature will pass a regional approach for road building based upon a one cent increase in sales tax in those counties that agree to build roads together.
Ethics - With the well-documented changes in leadership in the House as a result of alleged ethical violations over the past years, look for Georgia's ethics laws to be reviewed and strengthened.

Healthcare Rights - As healthcare reform makes its way down from Washington, look for Georgia and other states to take a cautious, perhaps even adversarial, approach to any mandated changes.

The Association of County Commissioners of Georgia, the Georgia Municipal Association, along with the Georgia Retail Association, were invited to a meeting right before Christmas with the new House Majority Whip Representative Ed Lindsey (left) and Senator Mitch Seabaugh (right) to discuss their wish to enact legislation which would allow school boards to lower property taxes by allowing an increase in sales taxes up to a one cent maximum. The tax would be revenue neutral, with property taxes being rolled back by the amount of revenue a sales tax increase might create.

We also discussed the inventory tax and may work to allow county by county choice to do away with the inventory tax as a means of fostering economic development.

Tort Reform - Georgia lawmakers may revisit medical tort reform during their upcoming session, depending on how the state Supreme Court rules on two challenges to major legislation passed four years ago.

The justices heard arguments in September in a case attempting to overturn a cap on pain-and-suffering awards in medical malpractice lawsuits. Then in October, the court heard a second case focusing on the burden of proof emergency room patients should face in malpractice claims.

The $350,000 cap on non-economic damages and limits on emergency room liability were key provisions in a comprehensive civil and medical tort reform bill enacted by the General Assembly in 2005.

Representative Jim Cole Appointed as New Secretary of State

Following the resignation of Karen Handel as Secretary of State so that she could concentrate on her bid for the governor's office, Governor Sonny Perdue has appointed Republican Representative Jim Cole (left) as the next Secretary of State.

The thirty-eight year-old Cole is a three-term lawmaker from Forsyth in Middle Georgia, who served as the governor's House Floor Leader in 2009, also served as the governor's Assistant Floor Leader in 2007-2008. He will serve out the final year of Handel's term. He will also run in 2010 for a full, four-year term.

Cole attended Mercer University on an academic scholarship where he also played baseball. After graduating with honors, Cole was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers where he played professional baseball until he sustained a career ending injury. In 1997, Cole returned to middle Georgia where he completed his MBA at Mercer University and began Culligan Water of Middle Georgia. After growing the business and opening successful offices in both Macon and Columbus, Cole sold his business. He most recently has served as the Assistant Athletic Director for Mercer University.

The Secretary of State's Office incorporates business and oversees professional licensing boards and elections. The last three Secretaries of State have each gone on to run for governor.

Ten Reasons to be Optimistic About 2010

In an interview with InsiderAdvanatge State Senator Jack Hill, a Republican from Reidsville, Georgia and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee gave his Ten Reasons to be Optimistic about 2010

REASON NO. 1

Well, it's not last year.... in beginning 2009, we had no idea how bad things were going to get and did not realize we were entering the deep recession we find ourselves in right now. Fortunately Georgia is entering not the first of the recession nor the middle of the recession, but undoubtedly we are entering the end of the recession. ...Street preachers holding up the sign "The End is Near," now probably mean the end of the recession is near.

REASON NO. 2

The recovery of the stock market has been amazing and if you left everything alone in your 401 (k) or 457 plans, you may be near where you were before the Federal Reserve started "saving us." In fact, the market, at 10,500 as of this writing, is doing so well that the really informed experts are predicting a fall because the market is doing so well. Thinking back a year we were hopeful that maybe 7500 was the bottom. ...Seeing rapper Snoop Dog ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange might make you re-think wealth redistribution.

REASON NO. 3

State Retirement Plans, TRS and ERS mainly, have done an about-face due to REASON NO. 2 above. In fact between the two, they have regained over $6 BILLION of the market value of their assets just this past year alone. Not a complete recovery since they also lost the expected earnings during the last two years, but all the same outstanding news. The first thing the bond underwriters mentioned in the evaluation of Georgia's bond offering was the soundness of our retirement systems. Not true around the country but a tribute to the leadership of this state over the years.

REASON NO. 4

Probably only "by the hair of our chinny chin chin" did Georgia retain its AAA bond rating this year which resulted in some of the lowest interest rates in state financial history. In fact the savings, some $47 million, helped to start rebuilding our depleted "Rainy Day Reserve." The AAA rating is a vote of confidence in the way Georgia has faced this freefall in revenues and shows faith that the state will move to refill its reserve fund before any new spending takes place.

REASON NO. 5

Georgia has actually had a rather good year in economic development and there are a number of positive developments around the state even in light of some closures and job losses. Kia beginning production, a 6,000 job impact, the NCR corporate relocation and factory project, the Mitsubishi announcement in Savannah, Efacec production beginning in Effingham, the military build-up and related construction at Fort Benning, just to name a few, are positive developments that point to a bright future for our state. And there are projects being discussed and presented all around the state even in these times.

REASON NO. 6

Motion pictures have had a record year which is astounding considering the competition for entertainment today from TV, cable and other mediums. And this is good for Georgia. Our increased tax credits passed two years ago have paid big dividends in the growth of the entertainment industry locating and filming in Georgia. Total investment in all filming doubled to $591 million in 2009. Economic impact is conservatively pegged at twice that amount. This year saw 26 feature films, 93 TV series segments, movies and specials as well as 250 commercials produced in Georgia. Sandra Bullock, Miley Cyrus and Robert Redford all made movies in Georgia this year.

REASON NO. 7

Agriculture has had a record year in production coupled with pretty good commodity prices. Cotton production set a record this year some 24 pounds over the previous 2005 record yield per acre. And due to a fall of 5% in world production, prices have hovered in the 70 cents per pound range. China is our biggest cotton consumer. Peanut production set a new record by some 50 pounds to the acre over the previous record. Corn, at 140 bushels per acre tied last year's record year.

REASON NO. 8

Georgia's ports, even in a year which saw container traffic fall off, was still less affected than many ports and refrigerated exports were actually up for the year. Vessel calls increased for the year as well as the Savannah Port's share of East Coast shipping. Increasing vessel calls in lean times point to the confidence in the profitability of doing business with Georgia's ports. As the world economy begins to recover and U.S. consumption starts to rise, Georgia ports will be the first to feel the recovery. And with the widening of the Panama Canal in just 4 years, the outlook for increased trade and traffic through the Port of Savannah is expected to dramatically increase. By the way, Kia and related companies will ship and receive some 16,000 container units through Georgia's ports the first year.

REASON NO. 9

The drought is over....who remembers those who said that Lake Lanier would never refill again....think how much harder all that needs to happen in water agreements and other actions would be if the state was still in a drought. If global warming was blamed for the drought, does that mean it is now to blame for the wettest on record?

REASON NO. 10

It takes a little work to find encouraging economic indicators out there...those pesky little realities get in the way, but believe it or not, they are out there. Here's a final partial list of economic reasons to be optimistic about 2010: Survey shows 7% of Atlanta employers plan to add staff in 1st Qtr, 2010, Augusta survey shows 15% of companies responding plan to increase payroll in 1st Qtr., 2010 (71% see no change), Transmerica reports that the percentage of Georgia mortgage borrowers at least 60 days behind will decrease from 73% to 68% by end of 2010, new job loss claims are running 14% behind last year (but 43% over two years ago), Kennesaw State's Coles College of Business & Economic Development survey in October found 47.8% expect production to increase in next 3-6 months, Dr. Albert Niemi, Dean of Business School at SMU (formerly at UGA) sees Georgia in a handful of states having the majority of growth in U.S. in next 20 years, and population growth while slowing 18%, still showed an increase of 131,373 this past fiscal year. Georgia has grown 1.7 million people in the last ten years alone.

Electronic Systems Used in the Sale of Alcohol

The Georgia Department of Revenue has issued the attached document concerning use of certain electronic systems by alcohol manufacturers, licensed wholesalers and licensed retailers.

There are two electronic systems. The first is an electronic funds transfer ("EFT") system. This system would enable wholesalers to debit the bank accounts of retailers for amounts invoiced. The other data system is the electronic data information ("EDI") system which consists of electronic information provided to retailers regarding the products and inventories of wholesalers in the format that the retailers request. Retailers must choose between one of the two systems.

The two electronic systems are:

• Electronic funds transfer ("EFT") system
• Electronic data information ("EDI") system

An exact copy of this document is available on the Department's website at:

https://etax.dor.ga.gov/alcohol/12-31-09_EFT_-_EDI_Services_-_All_licensees_(3).pdf


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Mention this ad and receive a 10% discount.

Quote to Ponder

"Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge; fitter to bruise than polish."
Anne Bradstreet, American poet


Thank you,

John C. Heavener, MSM, CAE
President, Georgia Retail Association

For More Information Contact:
johnh@georgiaretail.org
Telephone – 678-814-4176
Cell - 678-523-1765
Fax – 678-814-4178
www.georgiaretail.org

About GRA: The Georgia Retail Association, with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet, independent stores, and grocery stores has been serving the state’s business community since 1961. The Georgia Retail Association represents an industry with more than 71,300 retail establishments, and more than 715,000 employees - about one in five of Georgia’s workers – with annual sales of more than $115 billion.

Printer Friendly CRR January 4, 2010