Elimination of State Boat Sales Tax Cap Feared
Pollution Clean Up-State and Federal Changes
Dumping Waste Overboard Prompts Federal Investigation
NC Business Owners Learn About Legislative Interaction and Education
Know How to Contact Your State Legislators?
Know How to Contact the Media?
May 2001 - NC Marine TradeWinds Newsletter
Elimination
of State Boat Sales Tax Cap Feared
Not since the Luxury Tax that
devastated the boating industry in this state, has an issue raised more concern
on the part of custom sportfishing boat builders, boat manufacturers, boat
dealers, boat brokers, and the entire boating industry. This real threat, that
state legislators will pass a bill eliminating the current sales tax cap on boat
sales, has industry leaders baffled and small business owners across the state
scared.
At issue is the elimination of the
$1,500 sales tax cap on boat sales – and the imposition of a full range 3%
tax. Here are the problems:
¨
No one
has to buy boats in North Carolina – and competition is fierce
·
South
Carolina has a $300 sales tax cap on boat sales
·
Virginia
has a $2,000 sales tax cap – but the state of VA collects the tax, not the
dealers
¨
Boats
over $50,000 are the target
·
The
most impacted builders are the family owned, custom sportfishing builders –
there are 17 of these builders in Dare County alone
·
More
than 45 of the 70 builders in the state build boats costing over $50,000
¨
Almost
all of the 70 boat builders in the state are in rural counties,
where the loss of business will be felt the most
·
Approximately
10,000 employees are building boats, supporting the building of boats, or in
boat sales across the state
·
Another
10,000 NC employees are engaged in the servicing of boats in the state in,
again, predominately rural counties
¨
There
are over 400 boat sales businesses in the state – each will feel the pressure
from other states as potential customers realize that that they can save
thousands of dollars by buying out of state.
¨
The Luxury
Tax resulted in actual loss of revenue to the state, and it
just about stopped production of higher cost boats – the exact boats being
targeted with the removal of the sales tax cap. The Luxury Tax caused
wholesale marine recession and was especially hard on middle class jobs. In the
final analysis, the removal of the sales tax cap for boats will likely result in
negative revenue to the state, as the initial $1,500 in sales tax from these
boats will not be available because the boat will not be sold in North Carolina.
This critical issue is about to come
to a head in the State’s House and Senate. Builders and marine sales
representatives are urging everyone in the industry to understand the magnitude
of this issue and are encouraging individuals to make their concerns known to local
media and legislators. Bradley
Questions
About the State? Know How to Contact Your State Legislators? Media?
North Carolina has done a great job with
Internet assistance – almost enough to make it necessary, from a business
standpoint, to have web access. Several important sites come to the forefront.
1.)
Home base to most of the resources of
the state - www.ncgov.com/
2.)
Information on regulatory and
permitting - www.envhelp.org/html/onestop_permit.html
3.)
Names and contact information of your
legislators by county or district -
www.ncga.state.nc.us/html2001/Representation/WhoRepresentsMe/index.html
4.)
Local newspapers by city/town
name - www.microzoo.com/ncnews.html
5.)
NC marine trade business issues -
www.NCMTA.com growing and changing
6.)
www.NCWaterways.com - your about-to-expand resource for promotion of all
things maritime
Pollution
Clean Up-State and Federal Changes
The NC House and the US Senate have
recently passed legislation to make it easier to clean up contaminated
industrial sites, or brownfields. The purpose of NC’s bill is to make
clean-up rules uniform in the state environmental protection programs. Instead
of having seven different agencies dictate levels of clean-up, the secretary of
DENR would establish basic rules to determine the maximum levels of chemicals
that could remain in the soils and waters. This would reduce costs since
landowners would not have to pay different engineers to come up with means to
decontaminate soils and waters to different standards. It would also save on
paperwork time and costs in the state. The opponents of this bill are concerned
that different clean-up standards are necessary. For instance it’s easy to dig
out contaminated soil, but not so easy to clean groundwater. There is also
concern that this bill would give the Secretary of DENR authority that bypasses
the Environmental Management Commission and public hearings. The bill was
approved by the House, 81-29.
The US Senate legislation would ease
regulatory controls, but would also provide relief from legal liabilities and
funds for site clean-up, as well as, encourage the sale of brownfields
for private development. Specifically, prospective purchasers would be legally
protected from having to pay to clean up someone else’s mess, $50 million
would be released through 2005 to fund state clean-up programs, and additional
funding provided to clean up abandoned brownfield sites to create jobs or
open space parks. With Senate approval on April 26th, the legislation
was forwarded to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. For more
in-depth information, go to the following NC website:
Dumping
Waste Overboard Prompts Federal Investigation
The FBI has started the Clean Marina
Enforcement Initiative in Tennessee after finding 7 million gallons of
non-treated human waste was being dumped illegally into Tennessee Valley
Authority controlled lakes. The initiative targets houseboats, floating cottages
and other vessels that are not using marine sanitation devices, which on lakes
is a violation of state and federal law. The FBI has given a deadline, after
which time all vessels not using MSD’s can be federally prosecuted for
non-compliance with the Rivers and Harbors Act. A maximum penalty for each
violation is one year in prison and $100,000 fine. Under Tennessee’s state law
a violation is a civil offense with a penalty of $10,000 or in some cases a
Class E felony with a $25,000 fine and one to six years in prison.
What does that mean for North Carolina?
Environmental control programs are often copied, and the staggering amounts of
waste found in TN could prompt local officials to investigate our lakes. What
can you do? Marinas that don’t have pumpouts should put them in, or should put
up signs indicating where the closest pumpouts are. There is still grant money
available for installing pumpouts. Lake marinas should contact NC Fish and
Wildlife for more information. Boaters should be made aware of the damage
illegal waste causes and the fines that they could face. If you’re interested
in flyers to give to your boaters contact Wendy Larimer (910) 962-3351.
Larimer
NC
Business Owners Learn About Legislative Interaction and Education
A group of North Carolina marine business owners, presidents, and senior management representatives met this month in DC for the annual NMMA Legislative Conference and to visit state legislators. Here are some of the things they learned – much from consultant, Joel Blackwell (www.joelblackwell.com). If you have an issue that you want your legislator to understand, your most effective methods for delivering the message are, in order, 1.) personal visit (scheduled or spontaneous if you are lucky), 2.) a one to two page note on your business letterhead (handwritten if possible) – mailed or faxed, 3.) phone call where you have a crib sheet and 4.) email. The key to your message is to be accurate, truthful, brief, and specific, and to know and tell how the issue affects your business and your employees. Personalize the issue, ask for a follow up, and indicate that you will contact their staff. Then do so. The legislators want your input, and want to know how a proposed bill or issue affects the businesses in their region. Bradley