Volume 4 | Issue 2 | February 10, 2021 |
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From the Desk of The Chairman
COMMUNITY & GOVERNMENT RELATIONS COMMITTEE
Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce
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Dear Members and Friends,
I hope your 2021 is off to a great start!
I’m writing this on the morning of February 2, Groundhog Day, and looking at a tapestry of white across Kennett Square as the snow continues to fall. With the exception of an intermittent shoveling here or there, I may not leave this spot all day, as since I was a kid snow remains one of my favorite things in the world.
Groundhog Day and snow. It was easy to know exactly what I’d like to share in this welcome to the February Reporter. First, for those who are familiar with the movie Groundhog Day, this past 11 months definitely has some similarities to the day-after-day repetition that Bill Murray experienced throughout the 1993 comedy. Both personally and professionally, I know many of us have felt somewhat trapped into reliving the same routines and cadences day after day. And even if not to that extent, I think it’s safe to say “routine” has taken on a different tone.
And then there’s snow. Like I said, I have always loved snow. I think it’s beautiful. It has always pushed me – How could I find a steeper hill to speed down on a sled, tougher terrain to ski, build snowmen or forts, or pummel my brothers with snowballs, what’s the max I could keep shoveling before I caved and bought that snow blower (hint – I never did!)? Snow has always been my joy, my relief, and my motivator. And in addition to that, snow always presented that symbolism of being a beautiful fresh coat of white paint applied to whatever lied underneath it.
So, tying back Groundhog Day to my thoughts on snow, let me pose some questions to you – What are you going to differently to get out of your rut, to break the monotony, say goodbye to some of the old, and take back a little bit of the control that many of us have lost over the last year? What step are you going to take outside your comfort zone? What is that one thing you have always wanted to try but wasn’t sure if it was the right time? If you didn’t have a chance to take a good look at the blanket of snow today, make sure you do the next time it really snows. You have a fresh new canvass. What are you going to paint?
And if the Community and Government Relations Committee can help you navigate your way when you find those answers, let us know! We want to hear from you on what we can share with business leaders and local elected officials. Let us know how can we best work with local officials to promote our business community and most importantly, our Members? Don’t hesitate to reach out to the Chamber at 610-444-0774 or to me directly at 610-925-4206 if you have questions or comments.
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Doug Doerfler, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, Committee Chairman
Community & Government Relations Committee
Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce
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COMMUNITY AND GOVERNMENT RELATIONS COMMITTEE MEMBERS |
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Doug Doerfler, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, Genesis - Chairman
Donna Hosler Charlton, Office Elf Bookkeeping
Liz Ferry, Chamber of Commerce Greater Phila.
Christine Gordon, CRPC, Merrill Lynch
Alex Halper, PA Chamber of Business & Industry
Susan Hamley, CCCVB
James T. Horn, The Tri-M Group, LLC
Cheryl B. Kuhn, IOM, SCCCC
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John Lawrence, PA State Representative
Robert Listerman, BTR Security
MaryFrances McGarrity, CCEDC
Dennis Melton, Melton Architects
Ashley Miscevich, SCCCC
Tim Moore, Exelon Generation
Tim Phelps, TMACC
James E. Turner, Chester Water Authority
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Coalition Letter on COVID-19 Liability Protections |
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The undersigned organizations urge you to include targeted and temporary liability protections as you consider President Biden’s COVID relief package. As the Administration strives to reopen schools, protect our nation’s health and strengthen our economy, these critical protections will help safeguard educational institutions, healthcare providers, businesses and non-profit organizations from unfair lawsuits.
The COVID-19 virus continues to rage throughout this country, presenting once-in-a-generation public health and economic challenges. Despite these difficulties, the development and distribution of vaccines give new hope for a future free of the crushing social and economic effects of the virus. Unfortunately, for many who remain on the front lines and continue to serve our communities during this pandemic, the threat of unfair litigation continues to loom. In 2020, over $23 million was spent by plaintiffs’ firms on COVID-19-related lawsuit advertisements, a clear indication that an influx of litigation is coming. As employers, educational institutions, and others answer President Biden’s very appropriate call for face coverings and other protective steps, they should not have to worry that their actions will invite costly and unnecessary litigation.
The time for federal action implementing liability protections from such litigation is now. We thus urge you to include balanced liability relief provisions similar to last Congress’ SAFE TO WORK ACT (S. 4317) in any further COVID-19 relief legislation. We believe that legislation in this space should ensure that unfair lawsuits will not hamper those who work to comply with applicable government guidelines. We also believe these protections should be limited in duration and scope in addition to preserving reasonable recourse for those harmed by truly bad actors.
Ensuring a bright post-pandemic future for our country’s healthcare, business, and non-profit communities is a bipartisan objective. In the last round of COVID-19 relief negotiations, we were encouraged to see lawmakers from both sides of the aisle recognize the need for targeted and temporary liability relief. Lawmakers must come together now and ensure that the entities who continue to serve and protect their communities during this pandemic are themselves protected from unfair and harmful lawsuits.
In the wake of prior crises, Congress came together to pass needed liability protections with strong bipartisan support because lawmakers understood the acute threat of lawsuits at moments of maximum economic vulnerability. That threat is present again now. As such, Congress must take strong action now and provide a national baseline of liability protection during this national pandemic to prevent an influx of lawsuits from inhibiting our return to a robust economy and healthy citizenry. To read the letter and signatures, please visit Coalition Letter on COVID-19 Liability Protections
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We encourage you to use the links below to contact your representatives and
build support around our pro-business efforts.
CONTACT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS:
2020 Legislation Enacted - PA General Assembly
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CHESTER COUNTY COMMISSIONERS |
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January 29 - One month into 2021, and nearly one year since our lives, our personal connections and our communities were changed because of this pandemic. As we all know, emergency situations trigger extreme actions, and COVID-19 is, arguably, the biggest emergency of our lifetime. The early days of COVID brought shortages of cleaning products, toilet paper and hand sanitizer; then later, large demands for COVID-19 tests; and now, an urgency for COVID-19 vaccines.
Our Health Department works to fight COVID-19 on many fronts. One responsibility doesn’t stop as another comes on board. We are still contact tracing, investigating and reporting; supporting long-term care facilities, businesses, schools and community organizations; coordinating with hospitals and other medical facilities; testing – and now vaccinating.
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CHESTER COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION |
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Municipal Planning Grant Round Opening! |
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What planning project is your community ready to get started on? The first round of the Vision Partnership Program (VPP), Chester County’s municipal planning grant program, is now open. The deadline for applications is February 19, 2021 at 4 pm. Eligible projects include individual and multi-municipal comprehensive plans, ordinances, official maps, and a variety of studies. Efforts such as village master plans, trail feasibility studies, revitalization plans, historic preservation planning, stewardship plans, transportation studies, and sustainability/resilience plans are eligible project types.
Details and the application can be found online in the Municipal Corner of our website. Applications are to be submitted online by February 19, 2021 at 4 pm. Pre-application meetings with the Grant Administrator are strongly encouraged. Please contact Grant Administrator Susan Elks at 610-344-6285 or selks@chesco.org to schedule a pre-application meeting or with any questions.
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Suburban Center Landscapes Design Guide |
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With so much growth throughout Chester County’s suburban centers in recent years and with more growth expected, our communities are facing many challenges and must prepare for the new growth that is coming. To assist with these efforts, the Chester County Planning Commission is excited to present the new Suburban Center Landscapes Design Guide! This guide provides planning and design guidance for new development in corridors, underutilized shopping centers, older office and business parks, and infill locations within Chester County’s Suburban Center landscapes. Learn more
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Working Our Way Towards an Environmentally-Sustainable Future |
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Over the years, Chester County has made many strides to promoting environmentally-sustainable practices and standards throughout our communities. Now that we’ve made our way into 2021, communities should consider reassessing their current efforts to ensure the best “green” practices for residents and businesses both now, and into the future. The following three eTools provide ideas for saving energy and promoting green development practices. Learn more about Energy Audits for Municipalities, Green Development Codes, and Green Roofs.
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For more information from the Chester County Planning Commission, please visit: Chesco Planning
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CHESTER COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL (CCEDC) |
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CCEDC Granted Almost $1 Million in Funding for Job Training, Workforce Development Programs |
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Gov. Tom Wolf has announced close to $1 million in job training and workforce development funding for programs run by the Chester County Economic Development Council, in partnership with the Chester County Workforce Development Board, to support businesses in key industry sectors.
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Why Chester County’s Two New Innovation Hubs Speak to
Its Promise of Economic Growth
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With the recent opening of 23,000-square-foot life sciences incubator 8HUB in Malvern and the Keystone Innovation Zone designation of the building holding the forthcoming nth Innovation Center in Coatesville, Chester County Economic Development Council’s (CCEDC) VP of innovation and emerging technologies says the county is primed for that economic growth.
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For more information from the Chester County Economic Development Council, please visit: CCEDC
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TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT
ASSOCIATION OF CHESTER COUNTY (TMACC)
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Get Ready Coatesville: The Shuttle is Launching! |
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TMACC, in partnership with URBN, is proud to announce the launching of our newest collaboration, The Outfitter.
The Outfitter is a bus route that runs between Coatesville and the Urban Outfitters Retail Distribution Center in Gap, PA. The bus schedule will be timed to fit your work shift, and, as if that isn't exciting enough; as an employee of URBN, your ride is FREE! Get excited, Coatesville, the shuttle will launch on February 8!
For more details about the shuttle service, and to learn about employment with URBN, visit The Outfitter.
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Another PennDOT Project: Done! |
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PennDOT announced that they have reopened the bridge over the east branch of the Brandywine Creek in Honey Brook Township. The project rehabilitated the 84-year-old structure, which carries an average of 990 vehicles a day.
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For more information from Transportation Management Association of Chester County, please visit: TMACC
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PA CHAMBER OF BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY |
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Pro-Growth Policies are the Answer to Moving Pennsylvania's
Economy Forward
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HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry President and CEO Gene Barr issued the following statement in response to Gov. Tom Wolf’s 2021-22 budget proposal:
“The governor’s budget proposal this year comes at a hard time for everyone. The pandemic has brought the Commonwealth to a crossroads. For months, job creators have been forced to adapt to ever-changing situations and tackled numerous challenges related to shutdowns, closure orders, less economic activity and making sure they’re complying with state and CDC-issued guidelines. While the development of a COVID-19 vaccine has provided a much needed ray of hope, businesses throughout the state – particularly small businesses – are hanging on by a thread. The decisions elected officials make over the coming months will either set us on a course towards economic growth or significantly delay our recovery efforts.
“Unfortunately, as we noted last week, many of the policies recently outlined by the governor as among his top legislative priorities for the year – including a $15 an hour mandated minimum wage increase; an additional tax on the natural gas industry; and implementing unitary combined reporting – will only increase the cost of doing business in the state and make the Commonwealth less competitive overall. It’s disheartening that in addition to those anti-business proposals, the Governor today called for a nearly 50 percent increase to the state’s Personal Income Tax, driven by his desire to exorbitantly raise state education spending. It’s worth noting that Pennsylvania ranks 9th among states in per pupil spend and 10th when it comes to the average salaries of public school teachers. Read the full article, Pro-Growth Policies are the Answer to Moving Pennsylvania's Economy Forward
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FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF PHILADELPHIA
ECONOMIC NEWS
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Time Spent at Work Is About More Than Just Wages |
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In their paper, "Labor Supply Within the Firm," Battisti, Michaels, and Park examine how one's personal preferences for leisure are balanced by an incentive to coordinate with coworkers in determining working time. Recent literature indicates there are substantial fluctuations in working hours among the employed. In several European countries, variations in employees' working times were found to be as great as fluctuations in employment.1 In the U.S. manufacturing sector, per person working times at plants were also shown to be as variable as employment.2 In comparison, a number of earlier labor studies reported only small variability in the amount of time employees spent at work. Battisti, Michaels, and Park present a framework to explore this contradictory evidence in the literature. To read the full article, please visit Time Spent at Work Is About More Than Just Wages
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Bank Capital and Lending During a Downturn |
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Regulatory changes and stress testing have contributed to the increase in banks' capital ratios since the financial crisis. However, the recent downturn might result in sizable losses and a decline in bank equity. Government agencies have encouraged banks to use their capital buffers and made temporary adjustments to capital regulation as a way to reduce the impact of the reduction in bank capital on lending. Capturing how important is the capital channel requires isolating the effect of the capital reduction from demand and other supply factors. This article presents estimates from a structural model of banking that features big banks with market power and small banks that compete in credit markets and face capital requirements. The model is simulated to generate dynamics similar to those used in the recent stress test sensitivity analysis that the Federal Reserve conducted in light of the coronavirus event. To read the full report, please visit Bank Capital and Lending During a Downturn
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For more information from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, please visit: Philadephia Fed
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SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (SBA) |
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60,000 Paycheck Protection Program Loans Approved in First Week |
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WASHINGTON –The U.S. Small Business Administration announced that it has approved approximately 60,000 PPP loan applications submitted by nearly 3,000 lenders, for over $5 billion, between the program’s re-opening on Monday, Jan. 11, at 9 a.m. ET through to Sunday, Jan. 17. Last week, the PPP provided dedicated access to community financial institutions that specialize in serving underserved communities, including minority-, women- and veteran-owned small businesses from Monday through Thursday, joined Friday by smaller lenders.
As of today, Jan. 19, the Paycheck Protection Program is open to all participating lenders.
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SBA to Provide One Year 8(a) Program Extension to Participants
Due to COVID-19
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Eligible 8(a) firms must meet the following qualifications:
- Any firm that participated in the 8(a) Program between March 13, 2020, and September 9, 2020, has the option to extend its program participation for one year from the end of its program term;
- Firms that were terminated, early graduated, or voluntarily withdrew from the 8(a) Program during this period are not eligible for the extension; and
- Firms admitted to the 8(a) Program on or after September 10, 2020, are not eligible for the extension.
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How to Apply for PPP Loan Forgiveness |
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Did you take out a Paycheck Protection Program loan? Here are four steps to apply for forgiveness.
- Contact your lender and complete the form
- Compile documentation
- Submit the forgiveness form and documentation to your lender
- Communicate with your lender throughout the process
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For more information from the U.S. Small Business Administration, please visit: US SBA
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Digital Assets: A Framework For Regulation To Maintain The United States’ Status As An Innovation Leader |
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The report provides recommendations to help guide policymakers in developing a more closely coordinated response to the regulation of digital assets. Given the rapid pace at which digital asset innovation is developing and being applied, especially over the past year as the global pandemic has accelerated the trend toward digitization, the stakes are too high to fall behind. This report has a particular focus on financial services regulatory systems due to their significant impact on digital assets and related blockchain innovation, and outlines several recommendations for promoting innovation in the digital assets space. To read the full report, please visit Digital Assets: A Framework For Regulation To Maintain The United States’ Status As An Innovation Leader
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Opportunities Abound to Build a Cleaner, Stronger Transportation System |
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Earlier this month, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced an important new campaign for 2021—“Build by the Fourth of July,” which, as the name implies, calls on Congress to pass comprehensive infrastructure legislation into law by July 4th, 2021. This effort includes more than 220 organizations, including major voices from business, labor and environmental groups. We hope that this unified message will provide critical momentum to finally pass a historic infrastructure bill that the country sorely needs.
In our view, a successful “BB4J” effort must be comprehensive, addressing not only crumbling roads, bridges, and transit, but many other components of U.S. infrastructure, and do so in a manner that aids economic recovery and accelerates environmental progress of recent decades. As the pledge states, “As a nation we must be able to build big things promptly to accelerate the economic recovery and build the resilient low-carbon economy of the future. We need a durable commitment and clear strategy.” To read the article, please visit Opportunities Abound to Build a Cleaner, Stronger Transportation System
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2020 Union Membership: A Mixed Bag |
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January 29 - The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on January 22 released its annual estimate of union membership in the United States. This year’s report showed that union membership rose from 10.3 percent to 10.8 percent of the total workforce in 2020, reversing previous declines of 0.2 percentage points from the prior two years. However, despite the percentage increase, the story is a little more complicated, as the total number of union members actually dropped by 321,000 to 14.3 million.
It comes as no surprise that the economy took a big hit in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the number of jobs fell by 9.6 million. Given the low levels of unionization in the United States, most of these were non-union, thus causing the percentage of unionized workers to grow relative to the overall workforce. That explains the seemingly contradictory numbers, and as the economy eventually grows, the percentage of union members in the workforce likely will dip again to some degree. To read the full article, please visit 2020 Union Membership: A Mixed Bag
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U.S. Chamber of Commerce Commercial Construction Index - 2020 Q4 |
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February 3 - The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Commercial Construction Index (CCI) is a quarterly economic index designed to gauge the outlook for, and resulting confidence in, the commercial construction industry.
Recognizing a need to highlight the important contributions of this sector to the nation’s economy, the U.S. Chamber produced this first-of-its-kind index.
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West Grove, PA 19390
610-444-0774
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