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| February 22-23 |
2018 PACE Show (Thursday- Friday)
PACEshow.com |
| June 14, 2018 |
2018 GLW Golf Outing |
| October 3 & 4, 2018 |
2018 NPCA & NPGA Joint Convention |
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YOUR WEEKLY MEMBER NEWS LETTER:
is a service provided only to members of the Nebraska Petroleum Markers & Convenience Store Association (NPCA). If you have any key personnel that would like to be added at no additional charge, please feel free to reply to
tkeigher@npcainc.com, katie@npcainc.com or call (402)-474-6691.
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Thank You to NPCA's Partners
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HAPPENINGS IN THE NEBRASKA LEGISLATURE THIS WEEK
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Before leaving town Thursday of this week for a four-day weekend, lawmakers introduced an additional 124 new legislative bills this week, bringing the total thus far for the 2018 session to 332.
Senators also began debating carryover legislation from the 2017 session on Monday of this week debating bills in the morning and afternoons.
On Tuesday of next week, when lawmakers return to Lincoln, they will continue with morning floor debate, but will begin holding public hearings on
(photo courtesy of the Nebraska Legislature)
2018 bills in the afternoon. The last scheduled public hearing date will be February 27th for this session.
January 18, 2018, Thursday of this coming week, will be the tenth Legislative day and the last day for bill introduction.
On Wednesday of this week Governor Pete Ricketts gave his State of the State address to Senators outlining how well he feels the state is doing.
In his address, he discussed how his administration will deal with the current and projected future shortfalls in the state's budget. His plan includes across the board spending cuts for most agencies of 2% for the remainder of the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2018, and 4% in spending cuts for fiscal year 2018-2019. His exemptions to these cuts are K-12 education, the Department of Corrections and programs for the developmentally disabled.
In the Governor's plan, in order to fill in the approximate $200 million budget shortfall, he is recommending a little over $100 million in General Fund spending cuts, with three quarters of the dollars coming from the cuts to agencies. The other approximately $100 million will come from the cash reserves.
Property tax relief, along with personal and corporate income tax relief were hot topics of the 2017 session and continue to be in the forefront again in 2018.
Senator Steve Erdman (Bayard), along with cosponsors Senators Steve Halloran (Hastings), Tom Briese (Albion) and Tom Brewer (Gordon), introduced LB829, a bill to provide all Nebraskans property tax relief.
The bill is intended to reduce property taxes statewide by $1.1 billion. This is accomplished by giving a state refundable income tax credit of 50% of the property taxes paid to fund school districts and excluding any outstanding bonds. A refundable tax credit is one that not only is applied to one's state income tax liability, but can result in a credit (refund) if the full amount of the credit is not offset by one's tax liability.
The bill only addresses cutting property taxes and provides no offset to lost school revenue. Senator Erdman has stated that it is then up to the State to figure out how to provide the reduction in school support back to the school districts. The State's main source of providing these funds are through state sales and income taxes.
In order to accomplish the replacing of these funds to school districts, the State would have to either cut State spending an additional 25% or increase State revenues (sales & income tax) by 25% or some combination of both.
Senator Erdman has also been working on his "backup plan", an initiative petition should LB829 not pass in this Legislative Session. The petition would simply take to the citizens a ballot question if they would like a 50% reduction in their portion of school funding property taxes that they pay.
Governor Ricketts, through LB947 introduced by Senator Jim Smith (Papillion) is the Governor's tax relief package for 2018, replacing LB461 introduced by Senator Smith on behalf of the Governor last session to address property tax, along with personal and corporate income taxes. LB461 failed to advance after much discussion in the 2017 session.
LB947
- Adopt the Nebraska Property Tax Cuts and Opportunities Act, change income tax rates, and eliminate certain exemptions and credits, is a bill that's intent is to:
- Property tax - Gives homeowners (capped at $230) and ag land owners only (Nebraska resident land owners), removing property tax credits for commercial and industrial property tax payers, a 10% refundable tax credit against property taxes paid and would be offset by state sales and income tax revenues.
The bill also repeals the current property tax credit program, approximately $225 annually in funding to offset property taxes paid by Nebraskans.
- Income tax - reduces the top corporate and personal income rate from 7.81% and 6.84% respectively to 6.99% over a two-year period.
As indicated in the bills title, it also includes an "opportunities", aka jobs training component. This will be in the form of $5 million for two years for "key" jobs.
Bills of Interest with Action Taken This Week
LB44
, a bill that was introduced last year to adopt the Remote Seller Sales Tax Collection Act. As stated in the Revenue Committee's Statement of Intent: "The legislation would require remote sellers (online retailer without a physical presence in our state) to collect and remit sales tax if their gross revenue in Nebraska exceeds $100,000 or their sales in Nebraska consist of 200 or more separate transactions.
If the remote seller refuses to collect Nebraska sales tax, the remote seller would have to notify Nebraska purchasers that the sales or use tax is due and that the State of Nebraska requires the purchaser to file a sales or use tax return. The remote seller would be subject to a $5 penalty for each failure to notify. Furthermore, the remote seller must send notification annually to Nebraska purchasers by January 31 reflecting the total amount of purchases made in the previous year. Failure to send this notification would subject the remote seller to a $10 penalty. Finally, the remote seller is required to file an annual statement for each purchaser by March 1 with the Department of Revenue showing the total amount paid in the previous year. Failure to file this annual statement would subject the remote seller to a penalty of $10 for each purchaser that should have been included on the statement."
As you will recall, the bill had some lengthy debate and was advanced to Select File, but did not make it to the Governor's desk. As you also recall, he was opposed to it for a few reasons, one of which was that it could be perceived as a tax increase to those that were not remitting sales tax on their online purchase. The other concern is that if the bill passed and the projected revenue was included in the state's budget and the bill was found unconstitutional then the state would face a large budget deficit.
Senator Watermeier, the sponsor of the bill, introduced AM1465 on Wednesday of this week. The amendment is designed to address concerns outlined in Attorney General, Doug Peterson's opinion letter to Senator Kuehn on the constitutionality of LB44.
Up Coming Hearings of Interest
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2018 Upcoming Hearings
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Hearing Date
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Bill Number
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Introducer
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Committee
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On Liner
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1/16/18
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LB778
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Groene
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Education
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Require voter approval for school district building fund levies
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1/18/18
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LB884
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Harr
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Revenue
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Change and eliminate provisions relating to county sales and use taxes
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1/18/18
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LB882
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Schumacher
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Revenue
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Change provisions relating to certain inheritance tax proceedings
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1/18/18
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LB881
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Schumacher
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Revenue
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Change inheritance tax provisions relating to life insurance proceeds
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1/19/18
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LB772
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Walz
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Revenue
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Change provisions relating to agricultural land that receives special valuation
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1/22/18
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LB784
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Vargas
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Business & Labor
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Change the Employee Classification Act to prohibit contractors with unpaid fines from contracting with the state or political subdivisions
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1/22/18
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LB741
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Lindstrom
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Banking
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Change provisions relating to real property appraisers
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1/22/18
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LB858
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Hansen
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Business & Labor
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Provide annual adjustments for total disability income benefits under the Nebraska Workers' Compensation Act
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1/23/18
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LB900
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Bostelman
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Transportation
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Adopt and update references to federal law relating to transportation and increase fines for violations of certain motor carrier statutes and regulations. Exempt from hazmat endorse on CDL of agricultural transportation of fuel in quantities of < 1,000.
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1/25/18
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LB825
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Brewer
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Government
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Change provisions relating to budgets and public hearing notice for certain governmental entities
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2/26/18
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LB747
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Thibodeau
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General Affairs
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Provide for bottle clubs under the Nebraska Liquor Control Act
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1/16/2108
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LB865
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Crawford
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Urban Affairs
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Change provisions relating to passage of ordinances by cities and villages
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Introduced Bills of Interest
There are also a multitude of bills that have been introduced that deal with property tax and, personal and corporate income taxes:
LB881
-Change inheritance tax provisions relating to life insurance proceeds.
LB882
- Change provisions relating to certain inheritance tax proceedings.
LB884
- Change and eliminate provisions relating to county sales and use taxes.
LB885
- Change provisions relating to property tax protests.
LB905
- Change the burden of proof for certain protests of real property valuations.
LB910 -
Adopt the Property Tax Circuit Breaker Act and change the funding of the Property Tax Credit Act.
LB911
- Adopt the School District Local Option Income Surtax Act.
LB926
- Exempt members of the armed forces on active duty and their spouses from motor vehicle taxes.
LB961
- Change corporate income tax rates (the bill has placeholders for yet to be determined rates).
LB962
- Change individual income tax rates (like LB961 the bill has placeholders for yet to be determined rates).
NPCA 2018 Bills of Interest
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FMCSA Extends HOS Waiver for Heating Fuel Shipments to January 28
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The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has extended that driver hours of service (HOS) waiver to January 28, 2018. The original waiver was issued on December 30, 2017 and was set to expire on January 14. PMAA worked closely with the FMCSA to obtain the waiver extension. PMAA told the FMCSA the extension was necessary to meet peak demand loads for heating fuels in the affected areas in the aftermath of extended extreme cold temperatures ending earlier this week. PMAA said the extension would allow heating oil (HO) and propane dealers to replenish residential and intermediate bulk storage tanks to appropriate midwinter levels so that they can return to normal seasonal delivery schedules. HO dealers found it impossible to meet the high demand for heating oil and propane during the cold snap while operating within the HOS restrictions. High rates of consumption by both residential customers and electric utilities required drivers to make more delivery runs, travel further distances and drive longer hours to obtain sufficient supply to meet the demand. The FMCSA waiver does the following:
Deadline - Extends HOS waiver until 1/28/18 or until the end of the emergency period, whichever comes first.
Applicability - Applies to shipments of heating fuels, including heating oil, propane and kerosene. The waiver extension does not cover motor fuels unless they are used exclusively for heating purposes.
Intrastate and Interstate Drivers Included - The waiver covers all interstate and intrastate drivers transporting heating fuels. Interstate drivers are covered for all heating fuel shipments into, from and between states. The HOS waiver applies to intrastate drivers because the FMCSA considers petroleum products within the "stream" of interstate commerce from well head to end consumer and thus under federal jurisdiction. This is true even though the driver picks up and delivers the heating fuel to the end user without ever crossing a state boundary.
States Covered - The HOS waiver extension is effective for shipments of heating fuels into, from, between and wholly within the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York. North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, D.C., West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Driver Responsibilities - Drivers must keep a copy of the waiver extension in their possession while driving. Drivers must continue to record their daily hours of duty status. Drivers must write or input the words "Emergency Declaration" in the "Remarks" section of their daily record of duty status. Drivers who do not record daily hours of service pursuant to the 100 air-mile radius exemption are not required to record hours under the waiver.
Got questions? Contact Mark S. Morgan PMAA Regulatory Counsel at mmorgan@pmaa.org or 202-364-6767.
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Congress Has Much to Accomplish Before Spring
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The GOP has had good reason to celebrate lately, as they passed a comprehensive tax reform package for the first time in decades just before the Christmas holiday. However, there is still much work to be done before the Spring, during which members begin making preparations for their upcoming midterm elections in November. Once Spring arrives, there will likely not be much legislation passed.
The most pressing issue is to fund the government and avoid a government shutdown. On December 21, Congress approved a bill to extend government funding through January 19. This was the last major piece of legislation that Congress had to address before Christmas. Now, Congress will again have to fund the government by either passing a full spending package or another short-term spending package, known as a continuing resolution (CR). As of last month, there was a possibility that the next spending bill may include the Senate Finance Committee's separate tax extenders package, but that plan was scrapped. That legislation was introduced last month which includes a retroactive extension of the biodiesel blenders tax credit through 2018. It is looking like Congress will likely pass another CR to keep the government open, since neither party would want to see a government shutdown.
Before a final funding package is put in place, there must first be an agreement on top-line spending numbers which will need to be bipartisan in order for the budget to pass out of the Senate. However, this could be a challenging task because, although both parties support an increase in some military spending, the two parties are far apart on domestic spending levels. Once an agreement on the top-line numbers has been reached, the detailed appropriations will then need to be hashed out.
One issue affecting Republican's passage of any upcoming legislation is the swearing in of new Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) last week. The Republican majority has moved from 52-48 to 51-49 since Sen. Jones' election victory last month to replace current U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Further complicating the Republican majority issue is the fact that Republican Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and others may have to miss votes due to health issues.
Democrats now have a rare bargaining chip to use during the budget process because Republicans will need votes in order for legislation to pass. Immigration will be a top issue particularly dealing with President Trump's September order to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the program which protected undocumented immigrants who were brought here as children. President Trump will not sign a budget deal that protects DACA unless funding for a wall is included. Funding the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and hurricane and wildfire disaster relief. Furthermore, repeal of the Affordable Care Act is still on the table although some Republicans may be content with the stripping of the individual mandate that is included in the tax reform bill.
Beyond the budget the biggest issue the first part of the year is infrastructure reform. The White House is expected to release a more detailed proposal soon. Controversy will surround funding and the details of any infrastructure bill.
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The 2018 PACEshow, the premier Midwest petroleum and convenience exhibition will be held Thursday, February 22nd and Friday, February 23rd in Kansas City, MO.
All successful tradeshows have 2 key components - the number and quality of exhibitors and the number and quality of attendees.As a result:
►Exhibitors. All NPCA associate members should exhibit at the 2018 PACEshow. Your competition will be there, shouldn't you be there to talk to your current clients, meet new clients and see what your competition is up to??? You can bet your competition will be doing all this and more.
►Exhibitors. Please encourage all of your vendors to exhibit at the 2018 PACEshow.
►Attendees. Please mark your calendars and make sure you attend and actively participate in the 2018 PACEshow.
►Attendees. Please encourage all of your key employees to attend and actively participate in the 2018 PACEshow.
Register today at
www.PACEshow.com.
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On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) told a federal court that it is still reviewing the 2015 ozone standard. However, the EPA didn't give a time estimate of when they would be finishing their review, even though it is making strides with the states to implement the rule. Last week, environmental groups requested that a federal court set an April 30 deadline for EPA to issue attainment area designations, which would give the states the 120 days they are currently permitted to fight any designations they disagree with.
In late November, the EPA published attainment designations under the 2015 ozone standard. The National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) designations will go into effect on January 15. These designations are important to marketers because those counties designated as being in nonattainment will likely be required to adopt more stringent reid vapor pressure (RVP) or reformulated gasoline (RFG) requirements.
The EPA certified that 2,646 counties, two tribal areas and five territories, or about 85 percent of the nation's counties, meet the new standard of 70 parts per billion of ozone in ambient air. However, the agency stopped short of saying which areas of the country do not meet the Obama administration's 2015 regulation on ozone.
After the EPA failed to delay the process by another year over the summer, the EPA was required under the Clean Air Act to make all the decisions by October 1 but missed the deadline. In a statement, EPA said that "in the spirit of cooperative federalism, EPA will continue to work with states and the public to help areas with underlying technical issues, disputed designations, and/or insufficient information." The statement also said that "EPA modeling, state agency comments, and peer-reviewed science indicate international emissions and background ozone can contribute significantly to areas meeting attainment thresholds. The agency intends to address these areas in a separate future action."
PMAA has been actively engaged in fighting more stringent ozone standards that would have a negative impact on petroleum marketers.
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On January 16, 2018, Federated is pleased to provide your members access to a 30 minute complimentary webinar titled "A Top 10 List You Can't Ignore." Each year, OSHA releases a summary of their list of Top Ten workplace safety violations. Often, the violations don't change from year to year. Do you ever wonder why? This webinar will take a look at OSHA's Top Ten violations in 2017. More importantly, however, it will focus on risk management policies, procedures, training, resources, and implementation to help reduce employee accidents and injuries!
Key Discussion Points:
- Quick overview of the OSHA Top Ten violations for 2017
- Training resources, programs, and policies to implement in your business
- Positively impacting workplace productivity by reducing accidents and injuries
Advanced Registration is required. A recorded version of the webinar will be available here for 60 days approximately one week after the live session if you are interested, but unable to attend.
For additional information or to discuss this in further detail, please contact your Federated regional representative or PMAA's National Account Executive Jerry Leemkuil at 800.533.0472. Federated is a PMAA Corporate Platinum Partner.
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The Distilled Difference: How Marketers Benefit from Distilled Biodiesel
With winter settling in across North America, most petroleum marketers are thinking about cold weather use of their fuel. That makes this a great time for you to tell your members about distilled biodiesel.
Distillation is something most people in the fuel industry are aware of, but not everyone knows that biodiesel can be purified using distillation. They should, because the advantages are significant:
- Superior cold weather performance
- Improved ease of blending
- Greater feedstock flexibility, which can ease supply and price issues and allow for lower carbon intensity
As you can tell, this isn't just a cold weather issue. Distilled biodiesel is a great product no matter the weather. Learn more by reading this article, which includes a link to a white paper on distilled biodiesel.
For additional information about Renewable Energy Group, Inc., please visit or contact Troy Shoen. Renewable Energy Group is a PMAA Corporate Platinum Partner.
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Federated Insurance's HR Question of the Month focuses on employment-related practices liability issues. Last month's question was: Declare Salary or Job Offer Confidential?
I am responsible for writing and sending our job offer letters. While I know I cannot explicitly prohibit an employee from discussing their salary, terms of employment, etc., am I allowed to declare a job offer as "Private and Confidential," stated within the job offer itself? Please click here to read the response.
For additional information or to discuss this in further detail, please contact your Federated regional representative or PMAA's National Account Executive Jerry Leemkuil at 800.533.0472. Federated is a PMAA Corporate Platinum Partner.
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Nebraska Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association | (402) 474-6691 |
www.npcainc.com |
1320 Lincoln Mall, Suite 100B
Lincoln, NE 68508
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Copyright © 20XX. All Rights Reserved.
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