The Columbia-Montour Chamber of Commerce and Columbia Montour Visitors Bureau are pleased to announce the release of the Quality Living guide. The publication is complete with high quality images and detailed information about Columbia and Montour counties. It will be distributed as a tool to promote and grow our area’s economy. The 40-page guide showcases everything that makes the area a desirable place to live, work, visit, and enjoy. Sections include Healthcare, Education, Outdoor Recreation, Real Estate, Dining and Shopping, along with many others. Copies are available free for member use by contacting the Chamber office at 238 Market Street in Bloomsburg or by calling 570-784-2522. To see the new guide, click here.
Employers have until December 1, 2016 to comply with new overtime eligibility regulations developed by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The update, announced May 18th, is expected to extend overtime eligibility to 4 million workers. Detailed information, including fact sheets for non-profit organizations, higher education, and local governments can be found on the Department’s website, along with a schedule of free webinars for all employers.
A few of the key details on the new rules:
• The final rule increases the salary threshold under which most employees will be automatically eligible for overtime pay. The current salary level required for exemption is $455 a week ($23,660 for a full-year employee), which was last updated in 2004, and the new exemption threshold will be $913 a week, or $47,476 per year.
• Employers can take up to a 10% credit towards the salary threshold from commissions or bonuses as long as they are paid at least quarterly.
• In addition, the change in the salary threshold also includes an automatic adjustment every three years. The adjustment will be tied to the 40th percentile of full time salaried workers in the lowest wage region of the country (currently the Southeast).
• The overtime rule leaves intact the current “duties test” that employees must meet to be exempt, in addition to being paid a salary above the $47,476 threshold.
Legislation to block the new regulations has been introduced in the House (H.R. 4773) and Senate (S. 2707). The Protecting Workplace Advancement and Opportunity Act would also require the DOL to perform a better analysis on the impact changes to the overtime threshold will have on small businesses, nonprofits, regional economies, and local governments, in any succeeding proposed rule.
Last Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced updates to overtime regulations, which extends overtime eligibility to over 4 million workers. President Obama directed the Department to update the regulations in 2014. Employers have until December 1, 2016 to comply. Key highlights are as follows:
- The salary threshold will be increased to $47,476 annually ($913/week)—an increase of slightly more than 100% from the current threshold of $23,660 annually ($455/week). The proposed level was $50,440 annually.
- There will be no changes to the duties test. The DOL had indicated it was considering adding a quantification component similar to California’s that would have required employers to show an employee was performing exempt duties a certain percentage of time to qualify under the specific exemption.
- The salary threshold will be updated every three years and tied to the 40th percentile of full time salaried workers in the lowest wage region of the country (currently the Southeast).
- Employers can use nondiscretionary bonuses and incentive payments (including commissions) to satisfy up to 10 percent of the new standard salary level.
Detailed information including fact sheets for non-profit organizations, higher education, and local governments can be found on the DOL’s website. Informational webinars are also scheduled. The Chamber is working with its partners, including ChamberChoice, to provide additional resources for members. Legislation has been introduced in both the House (H.R. 4773), and Senate (S. 2707), which would block these new rules.
From SEDA-COG
The Columbia County flood risk management project is about 75 percent complete with full completion anticipated in November. To date, the project is on time and on budget.
Construction started last March with the official groundbreaking following that April.
The $30 million project will preserve over 700 jobs at the Autoneum North America Inc. facility, as well as maintain the potential for industrial development and local employment at the former Windsor Foods site. Without a flood risk management system, the former Windsor Foods facility would be unsalable and fall into a state of deterioration, becoming a blighting influence in the Town of Bloomsburg.
The project continues to have a positive effect on the local and regional economy. The project’s general contractor remains committed to local sourcing of suppliers and subcontractors from the area when it is feasible. Several local suppliers and subcontractors continue to provide material, equipment and labor to the project.
The weather has been conducive, allowing work to continue through most of the winter. Most of the subterranean work is complete. The H-pile and pre-cast concrete panels along West Fifth Street, Magee Avenue and Sixth Street are nearing completion. Most of the concrete work for the closure structures along the West Fifth Street corridor is complete. With the help of the best crew like Atlanta Concrete Contractors work can be done efficiently and effectively. The structure to be constructed at the western end of the Autoneum facility over the next couple of months is a Mechanically Stabilized Earthen Levee. This type of levee is best described as half of an earthen levee (wet side) and half of a retaining wall (dry side). Work along the North Shore Railroad mainline continues.
On West 11th Street, an earthen levee has been constructed along a portion of the western border of the former Windsor Foods facility. Tying into the earthen levee is a Mechanically Stabilized Earthen Levee which extends to West 11th Street, turns and runs east along West 11th street. Work will begin over the next few weeks to complete the Mechanically Stabilized Earthen Levee. This will allow the construction start of the full earthen levee, which will cross old West 11th Street and connect to high ground in a previously wooded area west of Barton Street.
In addition to the construction of the flood wall, substantial work has occurred and continues on several sanitary sewer pump stations and a storm water pump station.
From ChamberChoice
In late April, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced that a new general Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Notice will soon be issued. According to the DOL, the new poster won’t necessarily include an extensive amount of new information. Rather, the information in the notice will be reorganized so that it’s more reader friendly. The Agency has advised that employers will be allowed to either continue posting their current Notice or post the new version. Thus, employers are not required to change their current poster.
Along with that announcement, the agency also issued a new guide to assist employers with FMLA administration. Another purpose of the Guide is to help employers increase their knowledge of the law. This Employer’s Guide to the Family and Medical Leave Act is designed to provide essential information about the FMLA, including information about employers’ obligations under the law and the options available to employers in administering leave under the FMLA. The Guide is organized to correspond to the order of events from an employee’s leave request to restoration of the employee to the same or equivalent job at the end of the employee’s FMLA leave. It also includes a topical index for ease of use.
Although the Guide may not provide an answer to every FMLA administration issue an employer may have, it is likely to have some benefit to employers when administering the FMLA.
The State Representatives for Columbia and Montour counties are optimistic that finalizing a budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year will be quicker than the process for the current year’s budget. Despite a structural deficit of $1.4 to $1.8 billion in the proposal, Representatives David Millard and Kurt Masser feel this year’s negotiations are better. Their comments were made to members during a breakfast program held Friday, May 6th at the Pine Barn Inn.
Jennifer Reis with the PA Chamber of Business & Industry outlined Governor Wolf’s $33.29 billion budget, which represents a 10.9% increase in spending from the finalized 2015-16 plan. Included in the proposal are increasing the personal income tax rate from 3.07 to 3.4 percent, retroactive to January 1, a severance tax on the natural gas industry, and taxing a number of products and services that are currently not taxed. Reis noted that the budget includes no significant reforms to the State’s two public pension systems, or moves toward privatization of the liquor system.
Representative Millard highlighted the increasing burden of the pension plans. In the upcoming fiscal year, more than $2 billion will be dedicated to pension obligations. Over the next four years, those costs will increase by more than $1 billion. Rep. Millard has co-sponsored legislation which would put all new hires in a 401k plan, which would ease the burden long-term.
Representative Masser reiterated that it’s past time for Pennsylvania to get out of the liquor sales business, which only generates a 3% profit. “If any CEO was running a monopoly and could only return three percent, I don’t think your days in that position would be long,” said Masser. Privatization of the system could generate significant revenues. 
Masser also stated that this year’s budget negotiating process is better. During an abbreviated, two-day session week last week, the state House positioned H.B. 1999 – the General Appropriations bill for the 2016-17 fiscal year – for a final vote. After bringing up the bill on the House floor, lawmakers withdrew all of their amendments with the understanding that their funding priorities would be addressed at a later date.
The PA Chamber also expects the proposal to increase the minimum wage to be revisited. Earlier this year, Governor Wolf increased the minimum wage for State employees to $10.15 per hour. The Independent Fiscal Office projected in November that an increase in the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour could result in 31,000 lost jobs in Pennsylvania and 500,000 nationwide. The PA Chamber has been advocating for workforce training programs and tax credits to help low wage earners rather than mandated wage increases. Millard and Masser said they are still looking at the potential impacts and solutions to the minimum wage discussion.
Residential and commercial property owners in flood-prone areas of Columbia and Montour counties are facing dramatic increases in flood insurance. The Columbia County Housing and Redevelopment Authority recently received grant dollars to help some homeowners mitigate these higher costs and future flooding risks. Information sessions are scheduled for May 11th to explain the reasons for the insurance increases, and the grant assistance program. In addition to property owners, lenders, realtors, and insurance agents are welcome to attend to learn more.
In 2012, Congress passed the Biggert Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act. This legislation phases out flood insurance subsidies, which impacts many properties in our area that were built prior to the creation of the program. When the subsidies are fully phased out, property owners could be facing premiums many times higher than current rates.
Additionally, FEMA is remapping flood elevations along the Susquehanna River Basin following the flooding in 2011. This is likely to result in many more properties being included in flood zones. The remapped zones are scheduled to take effect in 2018.
The Redevelopment Authority has received funding to help homeowners in some sections of Columbia County to elevate their homes and/or utilities above base flood elevations. There are income guidelines associated with these Federal dollars. The informational sessions will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. on May 11th at the Espy Fire Hall to provide additional details, distribute applications, and help residents determine if their properties will be impacted by remapping.
The state’s Independent Fiscal Office released an analysis last week that anticipates the tax increases proposed by Gov. Tom Wolf in his 2016-17 budget plan would generate $2.66 billion for new state spending. This is slightly less than the $2.7 billion that the governor’s budget office estimates would be the full amount of tax hikes under his proposal. The IFO estimates that the proposed retroactive Personal Income Tax increase would generate the most revenue, netting $1.27 billion.
The IFO analysis also examined the impact of the governor’s proposed severance tax – a 6.5 percent levy that maintains the current impact fee but allows drillers to claim impact fee payments as a credit against the severance tax. The IFO notes the significant discount that Marcellus drillers are being paid compared to that of other major national hubs, and projects that this discount will remain in effect for the next several years. Because the governor’s proposal does not allow for deduction of post-production costs, the effective rate of the proposed severance would be the highest among other states that, along with Pennsylvania, lead the country in gas production: Ohio, West Virginia, Texas and Oklahoma.
FO also examined the employment effects of raising the state’s mandated entry wage to $10.15 per hour. The analysis projects a loss of nearly 30,000 jobs due to the increase, with the job losses felt disproportionately by part-time employees, as well as a “slower rate of hiring compared to a counterfactual where minimum wage did not increase.”
The final piece of the 2015-16 budget becomes law following an announcement by the Wolf administration last week that the governor will not veto or sign H.B. 1589, the Fiscal Code Bill. Per the Pennsylvania Constitution, legislation passed by the General Assembly automatically becomes law if the governor does not act on it within 10 days.
PPL Electric Utilities has made significant improvements to customer reliability in recent years through line clearing, capital investments, and new technology. Assisted by mild weather, 2015 service reliability was the best in more than 20 years across its 29 county service area. The company plans to invest nearly $1 billion per year over the next five years to further improve reliability.
An overview of the company’s service performance was provided to business and community leaders at the Pine Barn Inn recently by Greg Dudkin, President of PPL Electric Utilities. Mr. Dudkin explained that the company is responsible for transporting electricity from power generation facilities to 1.4 million customers in Pennsylvania. Once a part of PPL Corporation, the power plant at Washingtonville and the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station are now owned by Talen Energy, created in June of last year.
According to Dudkin, PPL customers experienced 30 percent fewer outages than in 2007, with tree-related outages down 37 percent compared to an average of the previous 10 years. The company expects to improve overall reliability another 15 percent. In addition to line clearing, reliability has improved through installation of new lines, rebuilding older lines, and installing technology to allow power to be rerouted automatically in a matter of minutes during an outage. During an outage, customers receive alerts and have access to outage maps and better estimated restoration times. These resources are available at www.pplelectric.com.
Dudkin also talked about their energy conservation programs. In the past six years, customers have saved enough electricity to power over 240,000 homes for a year, and saving $218 million annually. Programs are available for residential, government, non-profit, education, commercial and industrial customers. The company and its employees continue to be highly engaged in the community. More than $2 million has been donated to United Ways by their employees, retirees, and corporate giving. Employees volunteered over 15,000 company-supported hours last year. PPL Corporation has supported over 90 organizations in the Susquehanna region, including the Chamber, its Foundation, and other economic development organizations.
Mr. Dudkin’s presentation is available here.
With the State’s 2015-16 budget finally completed, legislators are well into the 2016-17 process. Will the next budget be passed on time? Get insights from our State delegation and the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry at an upcoming breakfast.
Jennifer Reis, Manager of Government Affairs with the PA Chamber, will provide an overview of the 2016-17 budget proposal, highlighting issues which impact business. Representatives Kurt Masser and David Millard with provide updates on the negotiations. Attendees will also be invited to ask questions.
The program will be held Friday, May 6th from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. at the Pine Barn Inn, Danville. Cost is $18 for members and includes a buffet breakfast. Register for the event online or by calling the Chamber office at 570-784-2522.