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Cash-strapped local governments, attempts to curb obesity and the trend towards paid family medical leave top the concerns of New England’s state hospitality and restaurant associations for the 2008 legislative year. “Albeit short sighted, legislators have historically looked to increase revenue by taxing the lodging and foodservice industries,” noted Dale Venturini, IOM, president and chief executive officer of the Rhode Island Hospitality & Tourism Association (RIHTA). The other New England state restaurant associations agree.
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Mandated paid sick leave could add up to crippling operating costs for Connecticut restaurateurs, warned Simon Flynn, president and chief executive officer of the Connecticut Restaurant Association (CRA). According to Flynn, the legislation would mandate that employers pay for up to six accruable sickdays per calendar year. “This would be a disaster to the restaurant industry,” asserted Flynn, who noted that usually, when a member of front-of-the-house staff is unable to make their shift,
In other benefit-related legislation, Flynn warned of a mandated single-payer, government-run health plan. “We recognize that something needs to be done, but there should be a market solution, not a government solution,” he explained.
Like neighboring Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Connecticut faces potential nutritional labeling on menus, a measure Flynn described as “burdensome and ultimately un-achievable,” |
due to the logistical obstacles facing smaller operators. Similarly, a proposed ban on transfats “must take place but at the pace of the marketplace,” urged Flynn. “Elimination does not equal a fix to obesity and heart disease. What we need and what we support is education.”
In a climate where “insurance is already unaffordable and unavailable to some establishments,” new measures regarding limited liability insurance would further impede coverage for many operators. Additional concerns include the proposal of a union check card, and an attempt to increase the tip credit and freeze the cash wage.
“None of these proactive issues is easy,” explained Flynn, since “legislation does not always have a long-term perspective about what they need to do to foster a business climate.” That’s where the CRA comes in, through regular meetings with local representatives: “We want the legislature to know how important we are to Connecticut’s economy and how vulnerable we are to the negative effects of regulation.”
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Rhode Island will be taking a defensive stance against anticipated attempts to increase taxes in 2008. “With Rhode Island facing an expected $500 million budget shortfall legislators will be looking for ways to raise revenues, and we can expect to see an attempt to increase taxes, especially the hotel tax and the meals and beverage tax,” predicted Dale Venturini, RIHTA president.
“Rhode Island already holds the dubious title of one of the most expensive places to visit and do business, and another tax may be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back. This year, we will work from an offensive position and look to help the state uncover new sources of revenues without taxing one of the state’s most important economic engines,” she asserted.
On the nutritional front the issues of transfats and nutritional labeling are on the horizon for the Ocean State. |
“Last year, we were close to a resolution supporting the voluntary ban of the use of transfats, and we will continue to work towards that path again this year, confirming our position that this issue is best left up to the industry and the market,” said Venturini. In the face of proposed bans, many manufacturers and foodservice companies have already “developed real alternatives to transfats, proving that legislation and regulation is not necessary, to solve a health issue when market forces are at work,” she noted.
RIHTA is equally opposed to the similarly motivated “push for menu labeling in restaurants.” Venturini said that the requirement is “simply not feasible and we will strongly oppose any such mandate.”
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The competition caused by proposed casinos in Massachusetts tops the state’s main legislative concerns for 2008.
“Casinos will be huge,” admitted Peter Christie, president and chief executive officer of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association (MRA). The association firmly opposes the proposed casinos not for any moral or ideological reasons, but because “casinos take so much discretionary income out of the economy, plain and simple.”
Christie likened the effects of three new casinos in Massachusetts to heightened competition on the local level. “Everyone knows what happens when a new place opens next door - sales lag.” |
According to Christie the collective drain on discretionary income would be comparable to “a new restaurant right next door, everywhere.” He further refuted the governor’s assertion that the casinos would bring new jobs into Massachusetts. “It wouldn’t be creating jobs; it would be displacing jobs,” asserted Christie, “it’s shortsighted.”
A proposed meals tax another legislative concern on the horizon for the state share a common cause. “They both have to do with the government needing more money,” said Christie. “Additionally, both issues have the support of our governor.”
Christie described the proposed meals tax as “taxing something not because it makes sense, but because they think they can.” Due to lobbying and mobilization, the association has thus far prevented the tax. “Fortunately on both of these issues, the House has seemed to understand our side even though they have huge pressure on them,” noted Christie.
Two issues aimed at curbing obesity that are also affecting other New England states are expected to manifest themselves in upcoming legislation in Massachusetts: a ban on transfats and mandated nutritional labeling on menus.
Christie noted that the association has been following the research on transfats for years, and that experts vary in their recommendations. While some consider hydrogenated oils “toxins,” the FDA recommends “the same moderation as with saturated fat.”
Christie described nutritional labeling as logistically difficult for most operators, and called the cause-and-effect argument blaming restaurants for America’s obesity epidemic as “flawed logic.” While roughly 50 percent of the food dollars are spent away from home, that breaks down to only 24 percent of dining out occasions. The remaining 76 percent of the food consumed “is all that stuff you purchase at the grocery store, that already has labels on it.” Yet despite the black-and-white availability of hard nutritional facts for the majority of the food they consume, “America is still obese.”
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New Hampshire’s main concern in 2008 is a piece of legislation the association has already defeated. “Given that 2007 was a challenging year on the legislative front,” 2008 will mark a more “proactive” approach for the New Hampshire Lodging & Restaurant Association (NHLRA), explained Michelline Dufort, the association’s president and chief executive officer.
“First on the agenda will be our response to the legislation filed to decrease the compensation provided to our industry for collecting the eight percent meals and rooms tax.”
Already attempted in the 2006 session, the proposed bill could see more success this year due to “New Hampshire’s budgetary woes,” Dufort noted. Last time around, the NHLRA “responded with an aggressive grassroots lobbying effort.”
“The legislation called for in 2008 proposes a reduction from the current three percent to 1.5 percent with a cap at $100 per month per property. This will be a priority issue for us.” |
Another legislative priority for the Granite State will center on the creation of a tavern license. “Being proposed as an alternative to legislation introduced in 2007 which would have prohibited anyone under the age of 21 from admittance into a cocktail lounge, the drafting of a Tavern License is an attempt to separate restaurants from businesses whose focus is to sell liquor,” explained Dufort.
Using measures from age restrictions for patrons and employees to increasing licensing costs, requiring liability insurance and prohibiting food sales, the bill would limit patronage for these mixed-use establishments. “In the words of the Chief of Enforcement of the Liquor Commission, it would move ‘enforcement from the bar to the door,” she said. According to Dufort, “The NHLRA is supportively monitoring the measure based on our ability to contribute to the final drafting.”
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Vermont faces some of the same legislative challenges as its southern neighbors, like, “menu labeling and trans fats,” noted Vicky Parra Tebbetts, vice president of the Vermont Hospitality Council, a division of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce.
But some of the issues that could be impacting the industry in 2008 are unique to Vermont, and can be attributed to its rural character. For example, recent legislation allows restaurateurs to serve un-inspected meat and poultry as long as they include a warning label on their menu for each item. “With so many small, local farms, our members wanted to be able to serve chicken raised a half-mile down the road,” explained Tebbetts. A similar bill regarding raw milk will be making it to the legislature shortly.
Also unique to Vermont is a potential ban on depositing organic waste at local landfills, aimed at requiring composting. “We support composting,” asserted Tebbetts, “but a ban is not the best way to deal with the issue.”
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Another recent bill would ban smoking in private buildings when attached to a public space. In practice, this prohibition would mean a bed-and-breakfast owner would be unable to smoke in his own home, even in rooms off-limits to guests.
Tebbetts also outlined a series of issues surrounding liquor licensing and legislation. “We’re trying to increase the number of people on our liquor license board and include an industry member.” Another bill would “allow property with two different licenses to exchange inventory.” As Tebbetts explained, “Right now, if you run out of wine in the restaurant, you can’t go get it from the bar.”
Additional legislation providing liquor licenses for commercial caterers, allowing bottles of wine made in Vermont to be sold at events such as local festivals, and facilitating the distribution of specialty beer with a higher alcohol content to be sold through distributors is pending.
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Money motivated much of Maine’s upcoming legislation, said Richard A. Grotton, FMP, president and chief executive officer of the Maine Restaurant Association (MRA). “At least two bills are going to be issues for us. Beyond that it’s a matter of what kind of trouble the budget shortfall makes,” he explained.
Proposed methods for making up the state’s budget shortfall could likely include lodging taxes, local option taxes and liquor taxes. If accepted, a proposed increase in minimum wage would mark the sixth annual increase in a row. It would also automate future increases,
“In essence putting minimum wage on auto pilot,” he noted. Beyond failing to accurately represent the typical tipped employee in Maine (many of whom are seasonal workers or high school-ers who still live at home) such legislation could “put a stake right in the heart of Maine’s restaurants,” |
by increasing the expenses for small businesses that are already operating on limited profits. “Our function has been to alert members as to what’s going on, and to urge them to contact members of the council,” said Grotton.
Another bill designed to provide sick leave for all Maine employees would require the equivalent of nine paid sick days for every full-time employee. “Well-intentioned though it may be,” the bill has “received a lot of pushback from the business community,” noted Grotton.
“We’re all for being reasonable, but most folks are part-timers who swap shifts among themselves.” Grotton suspects the bill is symptomatic of more extreme motivations: “They want paid family medical leave, but they’re doing it incrementally,” predicted Grotton. While the MRA supports looking out for employees, “we’ve got to be sensitive to the fact that somebody out there’s actually got to do the work.”
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