Georgia laws on alien workers

Here is a new standard for dealing with alien workers...Georgia is looking to employers for accountability on where the aliens aer in their state..including fines and penalties for employers...if you do any work in the state, but better review this law at:

http://www.gov.state.ga.us/press/2006/press1114.shtml

Is the harbinger of things to come at the national level? Employers-the state governments are shifting the responsibilities from them to you!

Missouri legislation affecting employees

Compared to Kansas it appears that Missouri is considering an extensive amount of legislation affecting employees (read helping employers)....please stay in touch with your legislators to determine how this will affect you if you own a business in Missouri..............reduced insurance rates, fewer lawsuits, smaller amounts paid to attorneys (say it ain't so!).........................

Kansas legislation dealing with franchise tax

This just in::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::from Kansas Insurance Commissioner Eric Carter:

"Franchise Tax Elimination. The House voted Thursday 92‑30 to phase out the franchise tax in Kansas.  HB 2548 reduces the rate of the corporation franchise tax from the current 0.125 percent of shareholder equity or net worth to 0.083 percent for tax year 2007; and to 0.41 percent for tax year 2008.  The tax is then repealed altogether, effective for tax year 2009.  The intent of the removal of this tax is to encourage existing businesses to remain in Kansas and other businesses to establish franchises in the State. "

Time to do a financial evaluation to determine if from now on you should incorporate and locate your business in Kansas...when was the last time you receive a financial incentive from your state? 

Asbestos Legislation

An update from Eric Carter, Insurance Commissioner from the State of Kansas on the asbestos bill: "The House Insurance Committee, of which Eric Carter serves as vice-chairman, held a hearing on House Bill 2868, the Asbestos and Silica Compensation Fairness Act. Throughout the United States, voluminous litigation regarding asbestos and silica related health issues have flooded our legal systems. Defendant companies often go bankrupt as a result of paying large settlements to plaintiffs, many of whom were not even injured.  As a result, genuinely injured plaintiffs left out of the original settlements are often left without redress, as all the defendants’ money went to non-injured claimants.  Currently, there is no requirement to show actual physical injury or impairment in order to file an asbestos or silica lawsuit. Thus, some plaintiffs will gamble that a defendant company will seek to avoid costly litigation and settle the claim. HB 2868 limits the filing of speculative claims without limiting the right of genuinely injured plaintiffs to be compensated. HB 2868 requires that a plaintiff be truly impaired, that asbestos or silica exposure must be a substantial contributing factor to the illness, and that a physician review the case prior to filing the petition. This bill restores, at least in part, some reason and fairness to the legal system which, in turn, benefits legitimate plaintiffs. The Committee will continue hearings on this bill on Tuesday, February 21, 2006. Rep. Eric Carter has indicated he will be supportive of this measure."

Thank God Eric is interested in this! This issue is truly a plague upon all businesses, including contractors!

Missouri PLA's

The PLA issues are heating up today in MIssouri....here is ABC's viewpoint on the matter:

"Support Senate Bill 849

Why we are opposed to discriminatory project labor agreements

• Union-only PLAs are discriminatory. While 100% of taxpayers are helping fund these government projects, PLAs discriminate against 80% of the construction workers in

  America

  who choose not to join a labor union. While proponents of PLAs claim that using union-only PLAs ensures use of local workers, less than 20% of construction workers choose to belong to a union. Since a PLA on a project requires the use of union workers, all non-union workers who live in an area are either prohibited or discriminated against in employment on the project.

• Union-only PLAs drive up the cost of construction projects. By limiting bidders, forcing construction users to pay inflated union wages and follow outmoded and inefficient union work rules, union-only PLAs unnecessarily drive up costs on projects.

• As many proponents of PLAs state, PLAs are not necessary to and are not successful at keeping labor peace on a project or keeping a project on time or on budget. Unions use the threat of labor problems to coerce construction users into signing union-only PLAs. This is a particularly disingenuous argument that is tantamount to blackmail, since unions themselves cause many project delays through illegal organizing and jurisdictional disputes on jobsites. As an example, the largest PLA ever granted, the rebuilding of

  San Francisco

  International

  Airport

  , was at one time $259 million over budget, six months late and suffered strikes by electricians and carpenters.

PLAs are not supported by the majority of the American people. When asked if they favored or opposed a proposal encouraging all construction companies working on federal projects to sign a union-only contract before they could work on any federal road or bridge project, 72% of Americans said they opposed union-only projects.

Why we are opposed to “job target fund” kickbacks to contractors on public construction projects

Circumventing prevailing wage and competitive bidding

While

Missouri

prevailing wage law clearly bans “rebates” back from employees to contractors, many contractors now receive kickbacks from workers “washed” through union “job targeting funds.”

These funds are used to subsidize bids against other contractors who must abide by the law and pay the full prevailing wage to their employees.

Moveover, such schemes can be used to “target” specific contactors in order to prevent them and their employees from winning fair bids and ultimately harming their business opportunities.

Such schemes are contrary to the intent of prevailing wage and open bidding laws, and represent bid-rigging and collusion hiding behind the statutes.

Anti-kickback language in Senate Bill 849 does not affect heavy and highway construction under the General or Annual Wage Orders, nor does it impact water and sewer line construction.

Contact your legislator today to tell him to support Senate Bill 849!  A list of legislators is attached.

Carl Degen

, ABC"

IF YOU HAVE ANY INTEREST IN THIS HOT TOPIC, NO MATTER WHAT SIDE OF THE LEDGER YOU ARE ON, GET IN TOUCH WITH YOUR MISSOURI LEGISLATOR ASAP!

Missouri Fair Public Contracting Act

The Missouri legislature is considering a new law banning project labor agreements and target funds....this will significantly impact union and merit shop companies. The act is called the Fair Public Contracting Act.

Call you representatives and give your "guidance" on the matter.

Kansas legislation

From my friends at the Heart of America Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors (at the end of the day it would appear this is geared to eliminate how some companies are getting around the prohibition against hiring "illegal" aliens:

:Attached is a revised copy of House Bill 2394 giving the state ability to use “alternate building construction procurement” processes, including design/build, construction services, construction management at risk and “best value selection” (which concerns me).   It appears this legislation will move rapidly.  It has the support of AGC of KS and Kansas Contractors Assn. 

Below is a draft of Kansas House Bill 2372 with some proposed changes.  The bill prohibits classifying an employee as an independent contractor for purposes of avoiding either state income tax withholding and reporting requirements or state unemployment insurance contribution reporting requirements.

The legislation arises out of claims by Carpenters Union that some contractors are hiring crews, usually Hispanic, as “subcontractors.” 

Proposed KDOR and KDOL Amendments to HOUSE BILL No. 2372 AN ACT concerning employment; relating to the misclassification of employees; and amending K.S.A. 2004 Supp. 79-3234 and repealing existing sections. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas :             Replace existing New Section 1 with:  New Section 1. (a) It shall be unlawful to classify an employee as an independent contractor for purposes of avoiding either state income tax withholding and reporting requirements or state unemployment insurance contributions reporting requirements.             (b) Any person violating subsection (a) shall be liable to the state for a civil penalty of $500, per misclassified employee and for each day such violation continues shall be deemed to be a separate violation. New Sec. 2. (a) The department of revenue in conjunction with the department of labor shall establish a toll free number and website to receive communications concerning information on persons and business entities misclassifying employees in violation of section 1, and amendments thereto. (b) Upon receipt of such information, the department of revenue shall work with the department of labor to investigate alleged violations. The agencies shall cooperate and share information as necessary concerning the alleged violations. (c) The secretary of revenue and secretary of labor may apply for, receive and accept moneys from any source for the purposes of establishing the hotline and website. (d) The secretary of revenue and secretary of labor shall publicize, distribute and disseminate information on the availability of the hotline and website and concerning employee misclassification violations to employment agencies, law enforcement agencies and other interested parties. Delete (e) and (f) and replace with:             (e)  The chief attorney of the department of labor, appointed pursuant to K.S.A. 75-5722, shall be designated as special assistant attorney general for the purposes of investigating, prosecuting and litigating matters under section 1, K.S.A. 44-636 and K.S.A. 44-720. Delete Section 3 and replace with: Sec. 3. The secretary of revenue and secretary of labor, are hereby authorized to adopt rules and regulations concerning the implementation of this act. Add Section 4:             Sec. 4. K.S.A. 2005 Supp. 79-3234 is hereby amended to read as follows: 79-3234. (a) All reports and returns required by this act shall be preserved for three years and thereafter until the director orders them to be destroyed. (b) Except in accordance with proper judicial order, or as provided in subsection (c) or in K.S.A. 17-7511, subsection (g) of K.S.A. 46-1106, K.S.A. 46-1114, or K.S.A. 79-32,153a, and amendments thereto, it shall be unlawful for the secretary, the director, any deputy, agent, clerk or other officer, employee or former employee of the department of revenue or any other state officer or employee or former state officer or employee to divulge, or to make known in any way, the amount of income or any particulars set forth or disclosed in any report, return, federal return or federal return information required under this act; and it shall be unlawful for the secretary, the director, any deputy, agent, clerk or other officer or employee engaged in the administration of this act to engage in the business or profession of tax accounting or to accept employment, with or without consideration, from any person, firm or corporation for the purpose, directly or indirectly, of preparing tax returns or reports required by the laws of the state of Kansas, by any other state or by the United States government, or to accept any employment for the purpose of advising, preparing material or data, or the auditing of books or records to be used in an effort to defeat or cancel any tax or part thereof that has been assessed by the state of Kansas, any other state or by the United States government. (c) The secretary or the secretary’s designee may: (1) Publish statistics, so classified as to prevent the identification of particular reports or returns and the items thereof, or; (2) allow the inspection of returns by the attorney general or other legal representatives of the state; (3) provide the post auditor from access to all income tax reports or returns in accordance with and subject to the provisions of subsection (g) of K.S.A. 46-1106 or K.S.A. 46-1114, and amendments thereto; (4) disclose taxpayer information from income tax returns to persons or entities contracting with the secretary of revenue where the secretary has determined disclosure of such information is essential for completion of the contract and has taken appropriate steps to preserve confidentiality; (5) disclose to the secretary of commerce specific taxpayer information related to financial information previously submitted by the taxpayer to the secretary of commerce concerning or relevant to any income tax credits, for purposes of verification of such information or evaluating the effectiveness of any tax credit program administered by the secretary of commerce; (6) disclose income tax returns to the state gaming agency to be used solely for the purpose of determining qualifications of licensees of and applicants for licensure in tribal gaming. Any information received by the state gaming agency shall be confidential and shall not be disclosed except to the executive director, employees of the state gaming agency and members and employees of the tribal gaming commission; (7) disclose the taxpayer’s name, last known address and residency status to the department of wildlife and parks to be used solely in its license fraud investigations; (8) disclose the name, residence address, employer or Kansas adjusted gross income of a taxpayer who may have a duty of support in a title IV-D case to the secretary of the Kansas department of social and rehabilitation services for use solely in administrative or judicial proceedings to establish, modify or enforce such support obligation in a title IVD case. In addition to any other limits on use, such use shall be allowed only where subject to a protective order which prohibits disclosure outside of the title IV-D proceeding. As used in this section, ‘‘title IV-D case’’ means a case being administered pursuant to part D of title IV of the federal social security act (42 U.S.C. § 651 et seq.) and amendments thereto. Any person receiving any information under the provisions of this subsection shall be subject to the confidentiality provisions of subsection (b) and to the penalty provisions of subsection (d); (9) permit the commissioner of internal revenue of the United States, or the proper official of any state imposing an income tax, or the authorized representative of either, to inspect the income tax returns made under this act and the secretary of revenue may make available or furnish to the taxing officials of any other state or the commissioner of internal revenue of the United States or other taxing officials of the federal government, or their authorized representatives, information contained in income tax reports or returns or any audit thereof or the report of any investigation made with respect thereto, filed pursuant to the income tax laws, as the secretary may consider proper, but such information shall not be used for any other purpose than that of the administration of tax laws of such state, the state of Kansas or of the United States; (10) communicate to the executive director of the Kansas lottery information as to whether a person, partnership or corporation is current in the filing of all applicable tax returns and in the payment of all taxes, interest and penalties to the state of Kansas, excluding items under formal appeal, for the purpose of determining whether such person, partnership or corporation is eligible to be selected as a lottery retailer; (2) (11) communicate to the executive director of the Kansas racing commission as to whether a person, partnership or corporation has failed to meet any tax obligation to the state of Kansas for the purpose of determining whether such person, partnership or corporation is eligible for a facility owner license or facility manager license pursuant to the Kansas parimutuel racing act; and (12) provide such information to the executive director of the Kansas public employees retirement system for the purpose of determining that certain individuals’ reported compensation is in compliance with the Kansas public employees retirement act at K.S.A. 74-4901 et seq., and amendments thereto.;and (13) provide taxpayer information to staff attorneys of the department of labor for the purpose of determining compliance by any person with the provisions of Section 1, and amendments thereto. (d) Any person receiving information under the provisions of subsection (c) shall be subject to the confidentiality provisions of subsection (b) and to the penalty provisions of subsection (e). (e) Any violation of subsection (b) or (c) is a class A nonperson misdemeanor and, if the offender is an officer or employee of the state, such officer or employee shall be dismissed from office. (f) Nothing in this section shall be construed to allow disclosure of the amount of income or any particulars set forth or disclosed in any report, return, federal return or federal return information, where such disclosure is prohibited by the federal internal revenue code as in effect on September 1, 1996, and amendments thereto, related federal internal revenue rules or regulations, or other federal law.             Sec. 4.5 K.S.A. 20045 Supp. 79-3234 is hereby repealed.             Sec. 5. 6 This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its publication in the statute book.