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Friday Facts – August 4, 2017

by | Aug 4, 2017 | friday_facts

Senate Approves Labor agreement with Lt. Gov. Casting Deciding Vote

Sales Tax Increase Front and Center in Budget Debate

Nominate a Retailer for Retailer of the Year Today

Retail News and Notes

  • As we expected on Monday the State Senate, thanks to a tie breaking vote from Lt. Governor Wyman, gave final approval to a new labor agreement that Governor Malloy and a coalition of state employees reached.
  • The day began on Monday with some suspense as three Democratic Senators, Joan Hartley (Waterbury), Paul Doyle (Rocky Hill) and Gayle Slossberg (Milford) were sequestered in meetings with Democratic Senate President Pro Tem Marty Looney.
  • Those Senators later revealed that they were discussing with Looney things that they wanted in a new state budget before they would agree to vote on the labor deal.
  • As usual our friends at the CT Mirror were all over the vote on Monday. You can go here to see for yourselves.

Sales Tax increase Front and Center in Budget Debate

  • Now that the labor agreement is behind us, the pressure will be back full force on the Legislature to adopt a new 2 year budget.
  • As we know, right now the state is operating under Executive order, which gives all the power on how to spend State money, to the Governor.
  • Meanwhile the Legislature – particularly the House and Sen Democrats, are trying to cobble together enough votes to pass a budget.
  • The problem they are facing is that both chambers have folks that either don’t want any more cuts in State services or don’t want to vote for any tax or revenue enhancements.
  • One area that House Democrats are pushing hard for is an increase in the State sales tax. The Speaker of House is not hiding that fact, the Mirror has more on that here.
  • The other key player in this equation is Sen. Looney and as the Mirror story shows today, he might be open to that idea as well.
  • CRMA remains OPPOSED to an increase in the sales tax and we urge you to contact your State Senator and State Rep today to tell them your opposition to the sales tax.
  • If you have any question about who your legislator is, don’t hesitated to contact our office or go to the General Assembly’s website, www.cga.com.

Nominate a Retailer of the Year Today

  • CRMA is accepting nominations for Retailer of the Year. The Retailer of the Year is the highest award that CRMA can give to a retailer and we honor them at our annual awards luncheon.
  • Send in your nomination TODAY by simply emailing Cathy in our office at cathy@ctretailnetwork.com with the name of your store or the name of your favorite retailer.
  • We will be sending more details on the Awards Luncheon soon, but save the date for the lunch today.
  • Make sure you set aside Wednesday, October 4th at the Bushnell’s Autorino Great Hall to join us!

Retail News and Notes

  • L.L.Bean Beats Amazon.com, Once Again, For Best Customer Service L.L.Bean continues to claim a rare retail bragging right: a first place finish over Amazon.com. For the third year in a row, the outdoor outfitter has been named Customer Service Champion over the online behemoth in Prosper Insights &   Analytics’ annual review of service excellence among retailers.   L.L.Bean continues to claim a rare retail bragging right: a first place finish over Amazon.com.