The mission of PINE's Government Affairs Department is to serve members with a strong voice before elected state and federal officials, and governmental regulators whose policies and practices affect printing and graphic communications companies.

Staff monitors proposed legislation in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and Rhode Island and we aggressively work to repeal laws that create unfair and unnecessary financial burdens for our member companies.

One recent example of the effectiveness of the legislative services provided by Printing Industries of New England was the passage of prepress exemption legislation in July 2000 that now saves all companies the Massachusetts printing and graphic communications industries $5 million in operating expenses each year.

On the federal level, we work closely with our colleagues at Printing Industries of America in Washington D.C. to keep members at home informed about proposed legislation in Congress that affects members’ ability to operate businesses.

We work cohesively to oppose unwieldy federal legislation such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Ergonomics Rule that forces workplace revisions upon business owners and sets in place federal regulation that is ripe for exploitation by uncaring employees.

Here are some other issues we are at work on at the national level:

• Oppose legislation that hinders the ability of employers to provide affordable health benefits to their employees.
• Reduce the IRS’s depreciation schedule on computer-related equipment from five to three years.
• Support repeal or phase out of the estate tax.
• Oppose any effort to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act.
• Support reinstatement of the Investment Tax Credit for manufacturing businesses.

Staff also organizes face-to-face meetings with legislators, either at their offices, or by coordinating tours at member companies’ facilities. Our intent is to help legislators understand the issues business owners face each day.

We coordinate grass roots support by members through letter writing and telephone call campaigns to elected officials.