Public comment is a valuable tool

 

One of the most important tools afforded citizens when it comes to ironing out public policy is that of public comment.

 

Most folks tend to look at that rather dismissively, fully believing that their opinion, in the whole scheme of things, means nothing. 

 

Don’t ever think that way.

 

Public comment works. I’ve seen it firsthand quite a few times.  

 

The best example happened back in 2011 when this column looked at a proposal by the Obama Administration which would have excluded all minors (except the children of the farm’s owners) from most farm work and all animal husbandry. That would have killed the future of agriculture in this country and destroyed the 4-H and FFA.

 

Thanks to the wonders of in the internet, the column went viral almost overnight and farmers, high school students, ag colleges, talk radio hosts, and politicians heartily voiced their opinions in the closing days of the public comment period. After that column made its rounds, public input increased a whopping tenfold to the US Department of Labor in a matter of just a few days. We beat back the regulations and it was a huge win for farming….all because people made their voices heard. 

 

It’s wonderful that our government gives us the chance to do that -- most don’t. Luckily we had founding fathers like Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson who were adamant about citizen-driven discussions, something that caught on in New England town halls and similar movements that followed and continue to this day.  

 

The process in a nutshell: When an executive branch or a legislative body, be it at the federal, federal or local level, is looking at creating policy or has proposed a change in policy it opens up a public comment period during which a board, special committee or the agency charged with creating or enforcing the new policies accepts either oral opinions (at special meetings) or written comment (via email, websites, or postal mail) regarding the proposals. After the period closes, that group goes back to the drawing board and either alters or, as was the case with the farm rules, scraps it entirely.

 

When delivering your comment there are five basic rules you should follow.

 

Be educated. Take the time to download the new rules and regulations and read through them. Also, read up on why they were created. Don’t take the word of radio/TV talking heads, your favorite elected official or columnists like me. Sure, we can lead you to an awareness or an understanding of government action, but you need to take ownership of your knowledge of the issues.

 

Be educational. Most policymakers have not been in the line of work, science, or art that they might be looking to change. But maybe you have. Explain how the new rules will affect any number of things -- your workplace, your family, your community, the environment and the economy. Your real world perspective, from being in the trenches, is what they want to hear. Only you, being in the shadow of the dominos, can give the most realistic story of what could happen.  

 

Be professional. Although a proposed regulation might get your goat, maintain a poker face. Anger and resentment never win over people you are trying to influence. You have to be able to sell policymakers on your ideas – so be a good salesman…be respectful and positive, never demeaning.

 

Be to the point. Some public comment periods can be overwhelming to governmental agencies. With the aforementioned farm rules, the US DOL received 13,000 written comments. That’s 13,000 letters and emails they have to sift through and read individually. Don’t put them to sleep. Keep it short, just a few paragraphs or nothing longer than a newspaper column. 

 

Be yourself. Far too often, organizations you belong to will tell you to send a letter that they’ve written to an elected official or a department. Never, ever do that. If the individuals overseeing the task see a few hundred of the same letter it ends up making said letter meaningless, even when received in volume. It’s like activist spam. They want fresh ideas, fresh voices, and fresh perspectives. They want you.  

 

Contributing your comment seems like it could be a daunting task, but it’s not. The daunting task comes when you have to live with a series of laws you didn’t want in the first place. So, do everything you can to stop them from ever happening. We’re granted a special power as a part of this republic. Use it.

 

From the 24 May 2021 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News

Safety committees are coming to your workplace

 

Navigating the pandemic has been relatively easy for businesses like manufacturers. Operating in industries defined by machinery, electricity, hydraulics, and other occupational hazards, safety protocols were old hat to us so it didn’t take much to adapt and adopt policies to address Covid or government’s response to it.   

 

That wasn’t the case for other employers such as offices, retailers, and restaurants. In work environments with far fewer risks, intense safety standards were never the norm. When those workplaces reopened they needed guidance from other businesses that reopened successfully (or never closed) and state government to do what was necessary to mitigate coronavirus exposure.

 

Picking up new behaviors, skills, and procedures didn’t end in 2020. Even though we seem to now know plenty about a virus that was still relatively unknown or misunderstood just 13 months ago, the government response to it continues to evolve and, in turn, so does the private sector response.

 

Take safety committees for example.

 

Such teams have long existed at my fellow producers and employers of larger size.

 

But, most small businesses, especially those that originally found difficulty navigating reopening, have never had a safety committee. It’s not as if fast food establishments, call centers, hotels, and stores really saw the need or value given that their exposures to risk were low.

 

That’s going to change. The State now mandates safety committees for all employers with 10 or more employees.

 

The new law is an outcome of the recently passed HERO Act which codified the Cuomo Administration’s Covid protocols while also enacting these committees and granting legal outlet for employees who feel threatened by employer responses to airborne diseases.

 

Governor Cuomo signed the Act into law on May 5^th. The first part, pertaining to the creation of workplace-specific control plans, goes into effect June 4^th. The safety committee portion takes effect on November 1^st.

 

Under the law, these committees must be comprised of management and general labor, and empowered with the abilities to raise health and safety concerns, hazards, complaints, and violations to the employer to which the employer must respond; review and provide feedback for any policy put in place in the workplace as required by the HERO Act and any provision of workers’ compensation law; review the adoption of any policy in the workplace in response to any health or safety law or executive order; participate in any site visit by any governmental entity responsible for enforcing safety and health standards; review any report filed by the employer related to the health and safety; and schedule a meeting during work hours at least once a quarter.

 

It might seem like a massive laundry list to employers that have never hosted a safety committee. As someone who comes from the world of manufacturing, please allow me to share a handful of tips on navigating this and getting the most impact out of it – sure, you want to address the law but you also want to get the most bang for your buck and protect your team.

 

Make the committee multi-functional. How many should make up your committee? That’s a tough call. It depends on the environment. At my place, 1-in-every-5 participate. Your crew should be made up of people from every aspect of operations and every shift so all nuances of the operations are addressed. If you run a grocery store, for example, you should have a cashier, stocker, butcher, baker, and customer service representative involved.

 

Have everyone inspect the workplace. Every committeeperson should be granted time during the workday in the days prior to the meeting to fully inspect and observe not only their workspace, but also the departments of others. Their findings should help drive conversation.

 

Keep the lines of communications open. It’s defeating to workplace safety if suggestions, observations, and concerns are kept until the next committee meeting. If you meet quarterly, that means you could go months before a legitimate issue is addressed. Encourage attendees (and all workers) to submit issues as they become aware.

 

Maintain records. Committee minutes should be maintained. An action plan noting findings and parties assigned to resolution should be issued and followed-up with after every meeting.

 

Invite outsiders to your meetings. Outside eyes are always good. They see things that you and your committee might miss being part of your normal day-to-day. So, invite your comp carrier’s safety guru in to tour and provide training and insight to your group. Also, take advantage of the NYS Department of Labor’s on-site consultation program to do the same.

 

While the HERO Act’s safety committee mandate may seem like a frustration to the uninitiated, employers not used to the practice will ultimately find value in the meetings and empowerment, as other employers have through the years. This is one of those circumstances when, done properly, the effected small businesses can turn lemons into lemonade.        

 

 

From the 10 May 2021 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News

The government might try to hide inflation

 

Talk to any farmer, manufacturer, or general contractor. They will all tell you that prices are through the roof on everything. Everything. Inflation is totally out of control.

 

Consumers began to feel that earlier this year. They’ll be feeling it in earnest in the coming months.

 

But, the government and the Federal Reserve don’t want you to know that. They want you to believe that inflation isn’t that strong. Over the past month or so, they’ve been hitting the talk and news show circuit to downplay the issue.  

 

If they admitted it existed it would call into question lockdowns, ramped-up government spending, various forms of economic stimuli, and hopes for a strong economic rebound. After all, what good is all this “free” money if you can’t buy anything with it?

To further advance their narrative, don’t be surprised if sometime this year the Biden Administration says we should go all-in with the Chained Consumer Price Index.

 

The Obama Administration toyed with applying it to Social Security in 2013 and 2014. The GOP Congress attached it to federal tax reform in 2017, applying its use to personal and corporate taxes for the first time ever.

 

Now, from a power broker’s standpoint, there’s a real need for it as a means to manipulate the numbers.  

In the traditional CPI method, the cost of a fixed basket of goods and services is tracked over time and that growth in value represents the inflation rate.

 

The Chained CPI takes that straightforward calculation and turn it on its head, making it subjective and something of a fantasy. Economists adjust the basket for assumed changes in buying behavior; no longer is it a designated collection of items. In their eyes, if a shopper won’t buy a beef roast because it went up X dollars, he would buy a replacement meat, like chicken. So, the Chained CPI adjusts for the modified basket, as theoretical as it may be, and tracks the price of the chicken, noting its price variance instead of the roast that used to be in its place.

Since the modified basket will feature lower-priced replacements, the Chained CPI will produce an inflation rate that is lower than the standard CPI. On average, in times of “normal” inflation, it cuts the accepted inflation rate by a third of a percentage point per year.

 

But, these aren’t normal time. What will the difference be in a wild inflationary era like this? We could be talking about multiple percentage points. Just look back at 2018, for example. Then, inflation was pegged at 2.44%. The Chained CPI brings that down to 1.5% percent.

 

Going to Chained CPI is more than just a marketing gimmick. It will also yield big fiscal results for Washington.

 

It’s been said that over the first decade alone, a fully-integrated Chained CPI (one applied to both revenues and expenses) would save $390 billion on federal spending. It would reduce the deficit by a trillion dollars in its second decade. That all comes from increased revenues and lower expenses.  

Those new revenues will be achieved by sticking it to those who pay income taxes.

 

Since wages will in many cases rise at a rate greater than what will be a much smaller inflation rate under Chained CPI, more people will jump into higher tax brackets – more quickly, too - since those brackets are continually adjusted for inflation. At the same time, personal tax loopholes will grow at an equally smaller rate, preventing people from deducting higher dollar amounts that would have tracked the CPI previously in place. We’re not talking peanuts: According to federal studies published a few years back, over the first 10 years of a Chained CPI the tax burden for a lower-income family will be 15 percent higher.

If the chained CPI is extended to Social Security the feds will see significant cost savings gleaned from those who rely on the government for a retirement income.

 

Social Security beneficiaries count on their benefits growing at a rate in step with inflation. In recent years the calculated rate of inflation has not been high enough to warrant a significant cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), if one at all. 2018’s COLA was 2.8%, the second highest over the 2010s -- and there were no COLAs in 2010 and 2015 and 2016 came in at a paltry 0.3%. Last year’s was 1.3%.  

 

Seniors have been really feeling that. For 10 years now, their retirement income hasn’t been growing in step with what they’ve been seeing at the grocery store or, especially, in their property tax bills. Imagine that for the long haul, but worse, under Chained CPI. Someone collecting Social Security will receive $560 less per year after 10 years and almost $1,000 less per year after 20 years.

The weight of the Chained CPI will bring a good many people down – taxpayers and beneficiaries alike. It’s an unscientific manner to calculate one of our economy’s most important statistics and an easy, almost clandestine way for Washington to earn and save money – and save face -- without making the hard, important decisions that they should.

 

 

 

From the 03 May 2021 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News