Vol. 3, No. 15 – July 19, 2004 

MARK YOUR CALENDAR 

Note these important dates and events on your calendar and make plans to attend. Details will be forthcoming: 

September 23-25 – NLBMDA Industry Summit, The Breakers, Palm Beach, Florida. A complete brochure is available from MLA – just hit reply to request. 

November 18-19 – MLA Fall Fling, Chateau on the Lake, Branson, Mo. Plans are just taking shape. You’ll learn important concepts at a half-day seminar, enjoy deluxe accommodations and catch up on important industry issues. And, that’s just for starters. You’ll get more information as it develops. 

2005 Education Programs – Dates are set for MLA’s most popular education programs. Mark your calendar and start planning for these sessions. Registration forms will be available this fall. 

Feb. 14-15 – Basic Estimating, Wichita, Kan. 

Feb. 16-17 – Basic Estimating, Kansas City, Mo. 

Feb. 17 – Yard Foreman School, Columbia, Mo. 

Feb. 18 – Advanced Estimating, Kansas City, Mo.

Feb. 24 – Yard Foreman School, Oklahoma City, Okla. 

March 10-11 – Basic Estimating, Tulsa, Okla. 

If you need this training and none of these dates or locations are convenient, please notify Olivia at MLA to discuss the possibility of scheduling another session. We appreciate your input. 

NEWS from NLBMDA 

Plan to Hold a Voter Registration Drive at your Yard! 

As you may recall, the 2000 Presidential election was decided by just 537 votes. The polls to date indicate this year’s election will be just as close. While voter participation has declined in recent years, many groups are organizing to reverse the trend this year. Americans Coming Together is just one example, a Democrat-allied group planning to spend $100 million on get-out-the-vote activities this year. While the business community cannot match their funds, we have one significant advantage: polls show employees view their employer as the most credible source of political information. It is up to each of us to ensure that your employees are educated voters this November. 

Take the first step and hold a voter registration drive at your yard during Lumber Dealer Involvement Week, August 2-9. The drive can be as simple as distributing voter registration forms, and/or inserting an informational flyer in employees’ paychecks. Visit www.voteforbusiness.com/portal/nlbmda.asp to find state-specific voter registration information, including a registration form you can download and copy for your employees to complete. You can also call NLBMDA at 800-634-8645 or email brooks@dealer.org for additional information. 

Source: NLBMDA Advocate, July 2004 issue 

NEW BILL WOULD RESTORE “ESTABLISHED BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP” IN FAX RULES 

Recently, the Junk Prevention Act of 2004 (H.R. 4600) was introduced on the House floor by Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI). This is another step in the FCC’s implementation of the “do-not-call” rules to block unwanted solicitations, in this case via fax. This particular act would reinstate the “established business relationship” (EBR) clause, which allows for facsimile messages to be sent among parties who already have founded a business relationship; this would include NLBMDA and our affiliated associations and their members, as well as your business communications with your customers. H.R. 4600 also includes a provision that allows the recipient to make a request to the sender not to receive any future solicitations. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce approved this bill June 24. Please contact your local representative to express your support of this important reform. For a more in-depth issue brief and sample letter to Congress, visit www.dealer.org or email Brooks Hanner at brooks@dealer.org 

Source: NLBMDA Advocate, July 2004 issue 

IRS MODIFIES REGULATION FOR DEPRECIATION OF NON-PERSONAL USE VANS AND LIGHT TRUCKS 

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued final regulations exempting qualified non-personal use trucks or vans from the Sec. 280F luxury auto depreciation dollar caps and from the income inclusion rules that apply to leased luxury autos. Non-personal use is defined by the regulation as any vehicle that, by reason of its nature (i.e., design) is not likely to be used more than a “de minimis” amount for personal purposes. For example, trucks and vans that have been specially modified (e.g., only a front bench for seating, installation of permanent shelving and painting the vehicle to display company’s name or advertising) are qualified non-personal use vehicles. 

The final regulations allow taxpayers to apply the exemption to qualified, non-personal use vehicles placed in service before July 7, 2003. They can do this on their original return for the year in which the vehicle was placed in service or if they’ve already filed the relevant return, by filing an amended return for open years. It can also be done by treating the change (from claiming luxury-auto-dollar-cap restricted depreciation deductions to claiming regular t-year MACRS depreciation deductions) as a change in method of accounting. For a copy of the full regulation contact T.J. Cantwell at tj@dealer.org. 

Source: NLBMDA Regulatory News, June 2004 

 

LUMBER NEWS – QUICK GLIMPSES 

SBA to rethink small business size standards… The Small Business Administration has halted efforts to redefine what constitutes a small business for the purpose of federal government contracting.

The SBA proposed in March to reduce the number of size standards from 37 to 10, and base all size standards on the number of employees. Currently, some size standards are based on annual revenue, and others are based on employee count. The changes would have simplified the size standards and their application to federal programs, according to SBA.

But the more than 3,700 comments on the SBA’s proposed rule have raised concerns the SBA needs to address before publishing a final rule. That review may result in substantive changes to the SBA’s proposal, according to the July 1 Federal Register notice.

After publishing the proposed rule in March, the SBA on May 17 announced that it was extending the comment period until July 2. Now, according to the Federal Register notice, the SBA plans to publish an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking to get more information on the issue before publishing another proposed rule.

The SBA had proposed that the new size standards would range between 50 employees and 1,500 employees, depending on the industry or SBA program. Companies that meet the small-business size standard in their industries can qualify for SBA loan programs, contracts set aside for small businesses and other federal business-development programs.
 

Source: Washington Technology, 06/30/04, by Gail Repsher Emery, Staff Writer 

Roadless Rules for Forests Reversed… According to the Washington Post, July 13, 2004 edition, the Bush administration has announced it plans to overturn a Clinton-era rule that made nearly 60 million acres of national forest off-limits to road-building and logging, setting aside one of the most sweeping land preservation measures in decades. 

Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman proposed replacing the Clinton rule with a policy that would allow governors to petition the federal government if they wished to keep certain areas roadless. She said this approach would encourage cooperation between state and federal officials and end the litigation that has dogged Clinton's "roadless" rule since its inception. 

Western states and timber companies had challenged the roadless rule in six courts after Clinton put it in place before leaving office in January 2001. The regulation prohibited development in areas spanning more than 5,000 acres, accounting for nearly a third of the national forests. Twelve Western states are home to 97 percent of all roadless areas, some of which provide drinking water to local communities as well as wildlife habitat. 

For the next 18 months, officials will follow the interim rule allowing exceptions for safety concerns. Once the new proposal takes effect, a governor would have to prepare a petition asking for greater or less protection than is called for under existing forest management plans, which are less stringent than Clinton's roadless rule. If the Forest Service accepts the petition, it would negotiate a detailed plan with the state. 

Source: Excerpted from story by Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post Staff Writer, Washington Post, July 13, 2004. (Information courtesy of NLBMDA.) 

Fate of DOL White Collar Exemptions Uncertain… As the Aug. 23 compliance date for the Department of Labor’s (DOL) new rules on white-collar exemptions to overtime pay gets closer, uncertainty increases. Opponents in Congress continue efforts to keep the rules from going into effect. The Senate added an amendment to a bill to repeal an export tax deduction that would prevent DOL from implementing any portion of the rules that would deny overtime pay to workers currently eligible. This bill must go to a conference with the House, where it is expected but not certain that the overtime provision will be removed.  

However, Democrats in the House are trying to attach an amendment to DOL’s fiscal year 2005 appropriations bill to do essentially the same thing. The House Appropriations Committee rejected the amendment but its sponsor, Rep. David Obey (D-WI), plans to offer it again when the bill comes up for floor debate.  

If either of these efforts succeeds, it could be retroactive, meaning that any actions taken to change company policies on who gets overtime might have to be changed later. The only provision that nobody is trying to stop is the one raising the minimum salary threshold for overtime pay to $23,660 a year. That will go into effect Aug. 23.  

Source: Last Week in Washington, published by National Retail Hardware Association, July 19, 2004 

Minimum Wage Increase? – Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) hit a detour in his efforts to increase the federal minimum wage when the Senate failed to end a filibuster and vote on a bill to change the way class action lawsuits are handled. Kennedy had intended to offer his bill to increase the minimum wage to $7 an hour as an amendment to the class action bill. After the vote and after Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) pulled the class action bill from the floor, Kennedy vowed to look for another bill to carry the minimum wage increase. 

Republicans were ready with a counter proposal on the minimum wage. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-TN) would have offered an amendment to raise the minimum to $6.25 an hour and allow workers to opt for time-and-a-half compensatory time off in lieu of overtime pay.  

Source: Washington Report, published by National Retail Hardware Association, July 2004 

MEMBER NEWS 

Boone County Lumber Co. hosted a visit from Vice President Dick Cheney today at 12:30 p.m. at Boone County Millwork’s showroom and production facility. Vice President Cheney is in Columbia to speak at a Bush-Cheney campaign rally, the campaign announced Thursday. The vice president’s last visit to Missouri was on June 21 in Springfield. 

Source: Moberly Monitor-Index, July 19, 2004 

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY 

“If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope for advance.”-- Orville Wright