Felony theft bill, SB 6167, signed by the Governor By Jan Teague, President/CEO
Governor Gregoire signed one of our top priority bills into law last Thursday, SB 6167, which dealt with organized retail crime. I would like to thank one of our members, Jason Moulton of Safeway, for all of his work coming to Olympia to testify and helping to develop this bill into something that will really help the industry deal with crime.
This new law authorizes an ongoing legislative task force that will talk about how to stop the growing crime rate. A report will be made to the Legislature for the 2011 session. The task force will be monitoring the effects of raising the threshold from $250 to $750 on courts and county expenses, evaluate sharing costs for prosecution and look for ways to enhance catching and prosecuting criminals of retail theft.
The task force will have two legislators from the House and two from the Senate, one prosecuting attorney, one criminal defense lawyer, one city representative, one county representative and one from the court system.
Besides the task force, merchants who create a database of criminals who have been apprehended or convicted of a crime are not subject to civil fines or penalties for sharing information. This is a great opportunity for retailers to begin sharing information on known theft rings working in Washington. The hope will be that retailers can more quickly spot these groups before theft rings sweep through an area.
Before a sentence is imposed, a prosecutor has to check the criminal history of the thief, which will force the prosecutor to review how many times a thief has done shoplifting before. This evaluation should help judges impose stiffer sentences for repeat offenders.
From a dollars & sense perspective, there will be increased penalties for restitution amounts when found guilty of theft. Previously, restitution was a $500 fine. It was more than doubled to $1,125. The felony theft limit was raised from $250 to $750, but WRA was successful at getting that increase reduced from $1,000.
Finally, retailers can request that all theft be aggregated when the retailers have knowledge that the theft ring went to other merchants in the area. The prosecutor can aggregate the value of the thefts to help prosecute using stricter sentencing.
The bill to raise the felony threshold has been proposed every year. But the bill lacked the support from the retail industry. This year with new legislative leadership interested in approaches to lowering jail, prosecution, and county costs, it was clear that retailers needed to resolve jail and prosecution costs while not sacrificing our need to curtail retail theft.
I want to thank our members who recommended ways to solve retail crime. This bill will give us an opportunity to work more cooperatively with all of the parties impacted by these crimes. Hopefully these next 18 months will produce some quicker responses in the courts and make it much more difficult for retail theft to occur.
Restroom access bill signed into law By Mark Johnson, Vice President Government Affairs
House Bill 1138, prime sponsored by Rep. Marko Liias, was signed into law by Governor Gregoire this week.
This measure will allow customers with and without medical conditions to request use of an "employee only" restroom starting July 26, 2009 if several conditions are met. These conditions provide protection for customers and store owners.
Main proponents for the bill represented people with Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, or other inflammatory bowel conditions. Similar legislation has been enacted in several other states. HB 1138 was expanded, under certain conditions, to allow customers without medical conditions to request use of employee-only restrooms.
Some of the protections and conditions included in the bill are:
*A customer with a qualifying medical condition must present a card or other identification showing that they suffer from a covered condition.
*Customers using fraudulent documents are guilty of a crime.
*Before a customer can use the restroom the store owner has to determine if it is reasonably safe and is not located in an area where providing access would create an obvious health or safety risk.
*Allowing access to the restroom cannot pose a security risk to the establishment or its employees.
*A store owner may require an employee to accompany a customer with or without a physical condition to the restroom. A store owner is not required to make any physical changes to an employee-only restroom.
First-time violations by a store owner will result in a warning letter.
Stores of 800 square feet or less are not required to comply.
The Washington Retail Association would like to thank Rep. Liias for bringing this concept forward before session to solicit ideas for bill language.
Retailers participate in Seattle reusable bag effort
By Mark Johnson, Vice President Government Affairs
On May 20, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels will kick-off a reusable bag campaign. The event coordinated with the Greater Seattle
Chamber of Commerce will take place at 10:00 am at the NW Harvest Food Bank, Cherry Street facility.
WRA is proud to have several prominent members volunteering to participate including Safeway, Bartell Drugs, Target, J.C. Penney, and Wal-Mart. Together these members will donate several thousand reusable bags to be distributed to low-income citizens through Seattle food banks.
The City and Chamber plan to recognize participants' efforts at the press conference and in future publications.
The hope is that the more reusable bags in circulation, the fewer plastic bags will be needed, which will save the customers and retailers money while protecting the environment. Also, many of the retailers recycle plastic bags, which often are made into reusable bags.
WRA and its members also are working with the City of Spokane on similar efforts and have supported attempts to implement reusable bag and recycling programs on a statewide basis. The association does not support a ban on existing bags or a new tax on their use.
Retro review study due in September
A study group reviewing the operation of Retrospective Rating programs is expected to make recommendations in September.
Since 2007, the group, including Tammie Hetrick, Vice President of Retail Services for the Washington Retail Association, has been studying ways to make operational improvements to retrospective rating programs throughout the state. The group is doing its state-funded work at the request of Gov. Chris Gregoire.
Hetrick said the Department of Labor & Industries has been cooperative in the effort to strengthen Retro programs.
"It appears we do have support from the department to keep Retro strong," Hetrick said.
The study group of business and labor organizations has been reviewing actuarial, underwriting and claims/risk management operations.
Association Retro programs work with employers to better manage their workers' compensation premium costs and return refunds to employers who maintain safe workplaces. The programs also assist injured workers in expediting compensation benefits and medical treatment while assisting them with programs to return to work as soon as possible.
Possible outcomes of the study group's work could be a bill to change how Retro programs operate or L&I policies that could make changes in how premium refunds are calculated, Hetrick said.
Marshall joins WRA as Retail Services Executive
Kenneth Marshall has joined the Washington Retail Association staff as Retail Services Executive.
Marshall is responsible for growing membership through enrollment in the association's services, including health care and retrospective rating programs.
Prior to joining WRA, Marshall enrolled members in the Washington Restaurant Association. His early career includes work for IBM and Divisional Manager for The Keg Restaurants. "Kenny" brings over thirty years of experience in sales to WRA.
Marshall enjoys cooking and was also successful as a catering owner and Sous Chef. Marshall has a son, Ken, who lives in the San Francisco area.
"We expect Kenny to hit the ground running with his background selling the Restaurant Association services. He comes highly recommended and we are glad to have him on our team," said Tammie Hetrick, VP of Retail Services.
State retail sales taxes continue to lag
The latest monthly state retail sales tax revenues were down 14 percent compared with the same period a year ago, a Washington Economic and Revenue Forecast Council report shows.
The revenue review covers the period of April 11 to May 10 of both years. This week's report is a preliminary estimate of revenues to the state.
The greatest monthly drops in revenue, by category, were: · Motor vehicles and parts, down 27.2 percent · Building materials/garden equipment, down 23.4 percent · Gas stations and convenience stories, down 20.8 percent · Furniture and home furnishings, down 18.6 percent.
Drug and health stores, with a 3.8 percent sales increase during the month compared to last year, were the lone retail trade sector among 12 to show an increase for the review period.
The monthly report mirrors declines established last year when retail trade sales in the state dropped 6.1 percent, to $48.3 billion, according to a Department of Revenue report this week. The state considers the retail trade category, which excludes construction and non-retail businesses, the best measure of consumer activity.
The biggest percentage drops in retail sales among major cities statewide were in Bellevue, (down 10.6 percent); Everett, (down 10.3 percent); and Tacoma, (down 9.3 percent) compared to 2007.
Declining state revenues this year caused Gov. Chris Gregoire to speculate about a possible special Legislative session later this year to adjust the 2009-11 state budgets for expected further drops in revenue later this year.
Gregoire commented on a possible special session before The New Tribune's editorial board.
Regardless of dropping state revenues, the forecast council found a reason to be optimistic about an economic recovery judging from a recent drop in initial claims for unemployment.
"The trend in initial claims suggests we may be nearing the bottom of the current recession in our state," the report says. "The longer the declining trend continues, the more likely it is that the turning point is near."
Since January of 2008, weekly initial unemployment payment claims peaked in March of this year, but have dropped since then.
From a national perspective, the report said the housing market appears to be stabilizing while bank lending remains tight. It predicts that the national economic recovery will not pick up momentum until the middle of next year.
Sources: Economic and Revenue Forecast Council, Department of Revenue
Retail imports improve slightly
Retail import volumes improved in March compared to February, when a seven-year monthly low was recorded, a report produced for the National Retail Federation shows.
March import cargo volume increased 16.8 percent compared to February, but was down 15 percent compared to the March period of a year ago. March is the last available month for measuring port cargoes.
"These numbers show that retailers expect slow sales this spring and summer and have been cautious in the amount of merchandise that they've ordered," said Jonathan Gold, Vice President for Supply Chain and Customers Policy for the NRF. "Month-to-month numbers are rising but we're still expecting significantly lower quantities of merchandise being imported than we saw last year."
Researchers for NRF total container volume imports at several U.S. ports including Seattle and Tacoma. The tracking service rates the ports as "low" for congestion, which is a reflection of the current U.S. and worldwide recession.
Source: National Retail Federation
RILA releases crime survey
A new national survey of 32 large retailers shows that a majority has experienced increases in shoplifting in the past four months.
The Retail Industry Leaders Association April, 2009 survey was a follow up to another completed in December of last year. The spring survey found that 61 percent of those retailers surveyed reported increased shoplifting in the past four months.
Paul Jones, RILA's Vice President of Asset Protection, attributed the problem to the worsening national economy.
Other retail crime problems that showed increases this year included financial fraud, burglary and robbery, RILA reported.
Apparel was the retail department most often hurt by crime, 34 percent of those surveyed said. In descending order, other departments most often affected by crime were electronics, 22 percent; health and beauty aids, 15 percent; grocery, 7 percent.
Respondents reported crime increases in urban areas and in "small town America," which often lags cities in crime increases.
Seventy-two percent reported continuing increases in organized retail crime, which often includes gangs stealing merchandise later sold on the Internet to support criminal activity. RILA reported there are three bills in Congress aiming to combat organized retail crime.
To learn more about organized retail crime and learn how to contact Congress to support legislation to combat it, visit orcawareness.com.
Source: RILA
State agencies to conduct contractors, vendors seminar
Vendors and contractors wishing to learn more about doing business with the state may attend an all-day seminar scheduled on June 4 in Spokane.
Representatives from several state agencies will attend to answer questions and take suggestions on ways to streamline and simplify regulatory requirements.
The seminar will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Mirabeau Park Hotel and Convention Center. To register, including a $55 fee, visit www.ga.wa.gov/Events/EVESHome.htm.
Legislature sets bill passage record
As lawmakers struggled with historic budget challenges during the 2009 Legislative session, they managed to set a record.
The state's Final Legislative Report shows the Legislature passed 583 bills this year, breaking the prior record of 538 bills passed during the 1987 regular session.
Source: Final Legislative Report
The Washington Retail Association, WRA, is a 501 C 6 trade association formed to advocate for Washington State’s retailers at the local, state and national level. Since 1987, the WRA has protected Washington's retailers from unreasonable taxes, fees, regulations and legislation. The efforts of the WRA benefit all Washington state retailers and help fuel statewide economic growth.
