Gearing Up for President Obama
Dec 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Mike Janssen
What the retail real estate industry should look for under a new administration.
ICSC supports federal action requiring states to collect taxes owed by out-of-state Internet vendors. The House and the Senate have both introduced legislation that would permit this, but neither version of the bill has moved out of the Congressional committees.
“It's not something a lot of people know about,” says ICSC's Laird of the issue. But she believes that “a perfect storm” of conditions may be coalescing that could raise awareness, with a key element being states seeking sources of revenue as they grapple with the impact of the recession. Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.) has said he is willing to reintroduce the bill this year, according to Laird.
ICSC quotes an Obama spokeswoman as saying prior to the election that the candidate “is monitoring the work state governments are doing in cooperative working groups to simplify sales taxes and at this point does not support any new requirements without a uniform and simple system for collecting taxes on Internet sales.”
Obama has taken a firmer stand on another issue of concern to trade groups. The president-elect cosponsored the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a bill supported by labor unions, including the AFL-CIO, and strongly opposed by ICSC. The act would ease employees' joining of unions by allowing “card check” — enabling workers to organize by signing cards rather than holding an election.
“ICSC believes the ability of the American worker to vote privately, without peer pressure or fear of recrimination in the workplace, is worth preserving and is a critical aspect of the American democratic tradition,” the group says. Employees might also be unaware of what they're signing when they vote by card check, ICSC has argued.
However, supporters argue that the bill will help worker rights.
“These reforms will level the playing field between management and labor,” Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) wrote in an article published on the Web site of the Labor and Employment Relations Association. “Giving workers more powerful weapons will prevent management from using intimidation to harass or nullify union organizing efforts.”
Progress foreseen in energy arena
Before the election, observers felt certain that in coming years legislators would intensify their focus on environmental issues. Obama and McCain differed in some ways on favored approaches, but both argued that the time had come to address climate change, and both supported caps on greenhouse gas emissions. That momentum will continue, says Kent Jeffreys, staff vice president in ICSC's office of global energy policy.
Democrats may be largely at odds with stakeholders in retail real estate on labor and tax issues, but Jeffreys says they may find common ground on details of energy policy. For one, Democrats may be more open to targeted tax credits, which Republicans generally oppose in favor of a level playing field, he says. ICSC supports rewarding tax credits to commercial real estate owners who use renewable sources of energy at their sites.
The newly emboldened Democrats may also be more open to the idea of net metering, which at the moment lacks significant support on either the state or federal level. Net metering would allow commercial real estate firms to offset electricity bills by generating electricity through the use of solar panels or wind turbines. After installing these technologies, property firms would also be able to sell any excess power generated back to utility companies. As it stands, states bar commercial properties from participating in such programs, which serves as a disincentive to use greener energy. “Why would I want to generate more power than I can consume on site if I just have to give it away to utility companies?” Jeffreys says.
There are still some gaps between Obama's energy policies and those of the industry. Obama has said he supports making all new buildings carbon neutral by the year 2030, a goal promoted by the nonprofit Architecture 2030 organization. He also supports setting a national goal of making new buildings 50 percent more energy efficient and existing buildings 25 percent more efficient over the next decade.
“ICSC does not support this inflexible, overly ambitious goal,” the group says. Likewise, IREM favors incentives to promote energy efficiency rather than standards, says Chuck Achilles, staff vice president, with IREM. One example is the $1.80-per-square-foot credit for energy efficiency that was extended until 2013 as part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act passed in October.
The CCIM Institute also opposes mandatory national standards. On the issue of cap-and-trade programs to offset emissions, which may get increased scrutiny in coming years, CCIM favors federal funding of further research into such programs. For now, much remains unclear what will happen with issues such as climate change and energy standards. “We're waiting to see some real action,” Jeffreys says. “And I think the country's ready for it.”
Acceptable Use Policy blog comments powered by Disqus
