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Minimum Wage Rising
The state’s minimum wage will increase to $8.90 an hour on January 1, up from the current $8.50. Page 2
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Steady Job Growth
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Reduced Dental Rates
Economists forecast Michigan employers will create more than 90,000 jobs during the next two years. Page 3
Retailers Insurance Company is reducing dental rates for 2017 because of the program’s positive performance. Page 10
® December 2016 Vol. 41 No. 6
MRA fighting legislation making employers collect all cities’ income taxes Bills working their way through the Michigan Legislature would severely penalize employers who hire residents of cities that impose a local income tax, MRA is telling lawmakers. At a November 28 news conference, MRA and other business groups said the legislation to make employers responsible for withholding city income taxes for all the communities where their workers live would harm businesses and the state’s economy. “Senate Bill 1127 and House Bill 4829 are government-imposed mandates on job providers in response to cities that complain they are losing revenue because they are ineffective at collections or due to taxpayer fraud,” said MRA’s Amy Drumm, vice president of government affairs. “Shifting their governmental responsibilities onto employers who otherwise have nothing to do with the city in question is unwise and unfair.” Current Law Twenty-two Michigan cities impose a local city income tax. Under current law, employers located in a city with an income tax have an obligation to withhold and remit the tax on behalf of their employees. Drumm said current law is legally sound because the employer has a connection to the city and receives services from city government. But requiring employers who have no connection to a city to be its tax collector is legally suspect and creates a tremendous and costly amount of complexity for payroll withholding. “The legislation would require businesses to get tangled up in administrative red tape to withhold and remit taxes to numerous additional taxing entities, without receiving any Continued on page 4
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Foundation boosting scholarships MRA scholarship amounts will increase significantly for 2017. The Michigan Retailers Foundation Board of Directors approved boosting scholarships for students of four-year colleges and universities to $1,500, up 50 percent from the current $1,000.
Scholarships for students at community colleges and approved training institutes will jump to $1,000, double the current $500 amount. The new amounts will be awarded for the 2017-18 academic year, following the annual scholarship
competition that begins January 1, 2017, and runs through April 1. The amounts had not been changed since 2004, when the scholarships for students of four-year public colleges and universities were raised to $1,000 from $750. Board members took the action on October 25 and said they would like to increase scholarship amounts even more in the near future. They plan to review on an annual basis the feasibility of additional hikes. “The continued success of the scholarship program is a high priority for board members, who also generously support the program with their own donations,” said MRA President and CEO James P. Hallan. “They believe now is a good time to begin increasing scholarship Continued on page 8
Stewart Powell, horologist and owner of Linn & Owen Jewelers in downtown Lansing, is getting the timepieces of MRA’s landmark, four-sided street clock up and running again. Photo by Patrick Kerwin
After searching for affordable repair options with no luck, MRA management was beginning to wonder if the 14-foot-tall structure might need to be decommissioned. “The clock was installed in 2005 as a service to passing motorists and pedestrians and to add to the traditional feel of the 1913 structure that houses MRA offices,” explained James P. Hallan, president and CEO. The two-story building whose exterior resembles a large residence, was constructed by R.E. Olds, founder of Oldsmobile, to serve as the Lansing Women’s Clubs. MRA bought the building in 1998 and moved in early the fol-
by Doug Henze Lessons learned during the Great Recession about cost containment helped boost the 2015 profits of independent hardware stores, home centers and lumberyards, even as customer counts remained flat or declined. That’s according to recent research by the North American Retail Hardware Association (NRHA), which provides information and services to the more than 35,000 independent hardware stores, home centers and lumber outlets throughout the United States and Canada. The Indianapolis-based group said it used questionnaires to collect financial and operational information from 1,077 retailers for the 2016 Cost of Doing Business Study. “Pretty much across the board, retailers found ways to be more efficient with their operations. That’s been a direct result of having to tighten their belts after the recession,” said Dan Tratensek, vice president of the 115-year-old NRHA and publisher of its Hardware Retailing Magazine.
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Timely troubleshooting – local jeweler rescues clock by Jean B. Eggemeyer The four-sided street clock that stands sentinel over Michigan Retailers Association’s “World Headquarters,” along South Washington Avenue on the edge of downtown Lansing, has been still for many weeks. The high-tech mechanisms that operated the four faces ceased to keep reliable time, and the companies that manufactured and serviced them were long gone.
Recession’s lessons help retail hardware