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Upcoming Events
2016 Virginia Congressional Luncheon
November 16, 2016
Russell Senate Office Building
SAVE THE DATE!
2016 Virginia Economic Summit
December 2, 2016
The Williamsburg Lodge
Financial Forecast
January 7, 2017
Greater Richmond Convention Center
Chamber Day at the Capitol &
Old Dominion Assembly Legislative Reception
January 25, 2017
Hilton Richmond Downtown |
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President's Message
 This year's Workforce Conference on September 28 drew record attendance-nearly 600 attendees-as we discussed how hiring veterans can help close the workforce skills gap in Virginia. Special thanks to our conference co-hosts, the Virginia Values Veterans (V3) Program and the Virginia Society of Human Resource Managers. Employers learned about actionable steps that they can take to make hiring veterans a priority within their organizations. If you missed the event, you can learn more at http://www.dvsv3.com/. We were also pleased to have Governor McAuliffe join us at the luncheon, where he announced that over 18,000 veterans have been hired through the Virginia Values Veterans program. You can find links to view photos from the event here.
On October 4-5, we co-hosted the 68th Annual Virginia Conference on World Trade in Norfolk with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the Virginia Maritime Association and the Virginia Manufacturers Association. Increasing international trade continues to be a priority for the Virginia Chamber as a way to grow and diversify our economy. To learn more about Virginia's world-class international trade programs, visit http://exportvirginia.org/.
Registration is now open for the 2016 Virginia Congressional Luncheon on November 16th on Capitol Hill. Join us to hear from Virginia's Congressional Delegation on the important issues impacting the business community. Registration is limited to the first 200 individuals, and tables are still available. More information on the Congressional Luncheon can be found here.
I'd also like to ask you to save the date and plan to attend our 7th Annual Economic Summit on December 2nd. The summit will include the release of the 2nd State of the Commonwealth Report and we'll hear from the 2017 candidates for governor in Virginia.
At this year's Summit, we will also announce the launch of Blueprint Virginia 2025. Since the release of the first Blueprint in 2013, our membership has nearly doubled to 25,000 businesses across the Commonwealth. That growth gives us an opportunity to update the Blueprint by engaging a broader cross-section of Virginia business leaders and establishing even more ambitious policy goals to achieve long-term economic growth in all regions. Over the next year, we will reconvene Virginia's regional leaders and industry experts to analyze state and regional economies and identify specific economic drivers.
In the coming months, please be on the lookout for more information about how you can participate in the Blueprint 2025 process! We'll be contacting our members and past Blueprint participants via email with more details.
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2016 Virginia Congressional Luncheon
November 16, 2016
Russell Senate Office Building, Capitol Hill
Join the Virginia Chamber for our annual Congressional Luncheon with Virginia's federal delegation. Don't miss this unique opportunity to ask your representatives about the most pressing issues important to your business, including potential changes to health care, taxes, labor laws and more! Senior members of Virginia delegation serve as guest speakers.
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7th Annual Economic Summit
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This November, Virginians will vote on whether to protect Virginia's Right to Work status by adding it to the Constitution of Virginia.
What is Right to Work?
Right to Work simply means that membership in any particular trade union cannot be made a condition of employment.
- Ten other states incorporate a right to work provision into their constitutions
- Elevating Right-To-Work to the Constitution will ensure that a future General Assembly could not reverse this important piece of pro-business policy without first consulting the voters
- This referendum will give employers assurance that they will have a predictable long-term business environment for employers
Labor unions have already mobilized to defeat this important referendum. Here are some of the myths we have to dispel:
- "RTW hurts the middle class" - RTW states tend to have faster job growth, faster wage growth, and more disposable income
- "RTW holds down wages" - Wage growth has been faster in RTW states at 15.2% from 2003-2013, whereas wages in states without RTW grew only 8.2% in that period
- "Collective Bargaining will be hurt" - RTW does not alter or abolish the right of workers to organize or bargain if they desire
- "RTW states are more likely to have injuries on the job" - RTW does not jeopardize training regimes and there are no data showing that non-union shops or employers are more dangerous
Please share these facts with your network and spread the word that this amendment is on the ballot. For more information, you can contact either Ryan Dunn at
[email protected] or John Dickinson at
[email protected].
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Arlington Sun Gazette Endorses Right to Work Ballot Initiative
On October 5, the Arlington Sun Gazette published an editorial supporting the Right-to-Work amendment, stating:
"If you believe the current law is reasonable (many do, some don't), then putting the language into the constitution is merely another safeguard against members of the executive, legislative or judicial branches trying to tinker with the status quo.
We have no problems with labor unions, which in many cases have served the nation well. But we also are supporters of Virginia's right-to-work regulations, and want them to stay intact. Therefore, we support this amendment..."
To read the full editorial,
click here.
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Nominations Currently Being Accepted for Virginia Chamber Board of Directors
As a business leader in your community and a member of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, you can be most helpful in identifying businessmen and women for possible service on the Chamber's Board of Directors. We are seeking individuals with a proven record of community service and leadership ability and who would have a commitment to preserving a positive business climate in Virginia on a statewide basis.
To make recommendations, please write to:
Ms. Stacey Mendler
Chair, Nominating Committee
ATTENTION: Maryann Crowder, VP of Local Chamber Relations & Executive Director of VACCE
Virginia Chamber of Commerce
919 East Main Street, Suite 900
Richmond, VA 23219
or email Maryann at [email protected] and identify your nominee(s) and attach a current bio.
Your letter must be received by Wednesday, November 30, 2016.
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Crowdfunding Guidelines
During the 2013 legislative session, the Virginia General Assembly enacted House Bill 1872 (2013 Acts of Assembly, Chapter 289), which allows any investment made by a taxpayer that is transacted via an online general solicitation, an online broker, or a funding portal ("crowdfunding") to be eligible for any income tax credit for which it qualifies. This legislation required the Virginia Department of Taxation ("the Department") to develop guidelines to facilitate the submission of any electronic documents that are required to be submitted by a taxpayer to document or verify that a crowdfunding investment eligible for a tax credit has been made.
The SEC recently published
regulations regarding crowdfunding, which became effective on May 16, 2016. As a result, the Department published the guidelines required by the 2013 legislation on October 3, 2016. These guidelines are now available on the Department's Crowdfunding Guidelines website.
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Tax Department Guidelines for Research and Development Tax Credits
The Virginia Department of Taxation ("the Department") has recently published draft guidelines for the Research and Development Expenses Tax Credit and the Major Research and Development Expenses Tax Credit. These guidelines are now available on the Department's Research and Development Expenses Tax Credit Guidelines website, and Major Research and Development Expenses Tax Credit Guidelines website. The comment period for the draft version of the guidelines began on September 28, 2016 and will continue through November 29, 2016. Please submit any comments regarding the draft guidelines via e-mail to Matthew Huntley at [email protected]. Final guidelines and other information regarding the guidelines will be posted on the Department's website in the future.
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Governor McAuliffe Announces Virginia's 1st Cybersecurity Apprenticeship Program
Governor Terry McAuliffe last month announced the establishment of Virginia's first registered cybersecurity apprenticeship, a partnership between Tidewater Community College (TCC) and Yorktown-based Peregrine Technical Solutions, LLC.
Formally approved by the Virginia Apprenticeship Council, the three new registered Virginia Department of Labor and Industry (VDOLI) apprenticeships in cybersecurity occupations are:
* Information Security Analyst - Cyber Security Analyst;
* Information Security Analyst - Computer Forensics Analyst; and
* Information Security Analyst - Incident Response Analyst.
The VDOLI identified the knowledge, skills, and abilities for these occupations with input from industry and subject-matter experts.
Governor McAuliffe noted that Virginia alone has 17,000 cybersecurity job openings, and the field is among the fastest growing in the nation.In August, the Governor announced that students could apply for a $1 million state scholarship fund. The Virginia Cybersecurity Public Service Scholarship Program will award $20,000 a year to eligible Virginia students who are studying how to safeguard computer networks, data and electronic resources. In return, the students must commit to public service by working at a Virginia state agency or institution for as many years as they receive the scholarship.
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DOL Issues Final Contractor Sick Leave Rule
Last month, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released its final rule requiring federal contractors to give their employees at least seven days of paid sick leave each year, implementing President Obama's 2015 Executive Order 13706, Establishing Paid Sick Leave for Federal Contractors. The 466-page rule requires federal contractors to give employees who work on or in connection with a covered contract up to seven days of paid sick leave annually. It is expected to impact more than 1.1 million workers once it is fully implemented. The paid sick leave requirements will become effective in new solicitations or contracts awarded after January 1, 2017. It does not cover grants, procurement contracts for construction not covered by the Davis-Bacon Act, contracts exempt from the Service Contract Act, employees performing in connection with covered contracts for less than 20 percent of their work hours in a given workweek, or employees whose covered work is governed by a collective bargaining agreement that already provides 56 hours of paid sick time. A summary of the new rule can be found here.
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Virginia's Business Tax Climate Ranking
The Tax Foundation recently released their 2017 State Business Tax Climate Index, which compares states' business tax burden across 5 major categories and taking into account over 100 variables. This year, the top ten tax climate states include Wyoming (1), South Dakota (2), Alaska (3), Florida (4), Nevada (5), Montana (6), New Hampshire (7), Indiana (8), Utah (9), and Oregon (10). Virginia, which was ranked 25th in the nation in 2014, has fallen to 33rd. Areas of concern identified in this report concerning Virginia's tax climate include the Commonwealth's individual income tax (40), unemployment insurance tax (39), and property tax (28).
See the map below to compare how Virginia compares to other states:
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States & Businesses Sue Over New Overtime Rules
Twenty-one states and more than 50 business groups are suing the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) over its efforts to drastically expand federal overtime regulations. They are seeking an injunction which will prevent the new rules from going into effect on December 1, 2016. The DOL updated the salary level above which certain "white collar" workers may be exempt from overtime pay requirements. This change raises the salary level from its previous amount of $455 per week (the equivalent of $23,660 per year) to a new level of $913 per week (the equivalent of $47,476 per year). Salaried white collar employees paid below the updated salary level are generally entitled to overtime pay, while employees paid at or above the salary level may be exempt from overtime pay if they primarily perform certain duties. The new rule also raises the compensation level for highly compensated employees (who aren't eligible for overtime no matter their job duties) from $100,000 per year to $134,004 per year. States and businesses argue that the overtime rule will have disastrous consequences for our economy.
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Maximum Civil Penalties for Violations of Environmental, Health and Safety Laws Increase Substantially
Last year, Congress enacted the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 2015. The Act directed federal agencies to adjust their civil penalties annually. On August 1, 2016, maximum civil penalties imposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) increased significantly. OSHA increased maximum civil penalties by 78 percent, as OSHA had not made any inflationary increase since 1990.
The relevant key increases are as follows:
- Maximum penalties for willful and repeated violations increased from $70,000 to $124,709 per violation.
- Maximum penalties for serious and other-than-serious violations increased from $7,000 to $12,471 per violation.
- Maximum penalties for failure-to-abate violations increased from $7,000 to $12,471 per day per violation.
Even though Virginia implements and enforces its own OSHA programs, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, the Commonwealth must also adopt these maximum penalty levels.
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| New labor regulations to cost manufacturers $80 billion in compliance costs over 10 years
The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) recently released a study outlining the true costs of the new labor laws and how it will impact manufacturers. According to the study, recent federal labor regulations-such as contractor blacklisting, employee overtime, union elections, and injury and illness reporting-will cost the following over the next 10 years: $81.6 billion in compliance costs; 155,700 lost jobs; and 411 million hours of paperwork. According to NAM Senior Vice President of Policy and Government Relations Aric Newhouse, "These regulations are making it harder for manufacturers to continue to create jobs and economic opportunity." For a copy of the study, click here.
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More Virginians Hold Bachelor's Degree
More Americans today hold academic degrees than ever before. According to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of U.S. adults who completed a four-year college degree has steadily increased over the past 75 years - from 5.0% in 1940 to 30.6% in 2015. The college attainment rate ranges from 41.5% in Massachusetts to 19.6% in West Virginia. To identify America's most and least educated states, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the percentages of adults who have completed at least a bachelor's degree in each state from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2015 American Community Survey (ACS).
Of the adults in Virginia, 37% have at least a bachelor's degree, the sixth highest college attainment rate of any state. As a result of the Commonwealth's high educational levels, Virginia has a large share of residents who work in high-paying jobs that tend to require college degrees. For example, 14.7% of the state's workforce is employed in a professional, scientific, or management position, the second highest share of any state. The typical Virginia household has an income of $66,262 annually, eighth highest nationally, far more than the $55,775 national median household income.
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Interested in International Expansion? Take Advantage of VITAL!
The Virginia Chamber is proud to partner with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership on VITAL, the Virginia International Trade Alliance. As a VITAL partner, our member companies have access to steeply discounted rates for international market research as well as international trade shows and international trade missions facilitated through VEDP.
Click below for more information:
If you or a company that you work with is interested in learning more about VITAL, please contact Samantha Quig, Corporate Communications Manager, at [email protected] or 804-237-1457.
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Keep up with the Virginia Chamber on Twitter!
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