Howes: Martinez Lacks the Experience to Understand Job Growth
Says that, if elected to represent the Third Middlesex District in the State Senate, he will offer a business-friendly approach to job creation based on 20 years of experience in the field.
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In a recent press release, Greg Howes, a Concord Republican seeking the Third Middlesex State Senate seat long held by Susan Fargo, D-Lincoln, contrasted his private sector experience with that of Sandi Martinez, a Chelmsford Republican and his opponent in the Republican Primary.
Howes charges that Martinez, a recurring GOP candidate in the Third Middlesex District, lacks workplace experience to understand job growth, and suggests his combination of public and private experience "contrasts sharply with the incredible lack of credible business experience in Martinez.”
“She doesn’t know the pains of having to pay the highest rates in the nation for unemployment insurance because she has never had to pay employees,” said Howes, who owns and insurance company and just left Concord's Board of Selectmen after two terms. “Sandi says her ‘idea for growing jobs’ is not her ‘jobs plan’. Shouldn’t these be one in the same?”
Here's the full text of the press release:
On a daily basis, Greg Howes helps Massachusetts business owners navigate the Independent Contractor Law’s impact on workers compensation insurance and is intimately familiar with the positive and negative effects of the legislation.
Howes stated, “The Independent Contractor Law does not prevent anyone from starting a business. The problem with the law lies in the definition section of the law.”
Massachusetts’ “Three-Part Test” is more rigid than the Federal definition of an independent contractor and businesses would benefit from amending the test by simply replacing the word “and” with “or”. The change would bring Massachusetts into alignment with the IRS test for determining contractor status.
Mr. Howes agrees with Mr. Hruby that we do not need another “ill informed Senator”, stating, “I offer the day to day, pragmatic experience in business and local government, which contrasts sharply with the incredible lack of credible business experience in Martinez.”
“She doesn’t know the pains of having to pay the highest rates in the nation for unemployment insurance because she has never had to pay employees,” Howes noted.
Up until recently, Martinez has actually listed herself as unemployed on OCPF filings.
“Sandi says her ‘idea for growing jobs’ is not her ‘jobs plan’. Shouldn’t these be one in the same?”
Howes’ jobs plan includes reducing the high rates that Massachusetts business owners pay for Unemployment Insurance and reducing our corporate tax burden. Mr. Howes would also replace the currently inadequate "small business impact test" and require a true test of the impact of legislation on our small businesses as called for by the Republican leaders of our state legislature."
“My plan is in line with every Republican in the state and comes from true experience. It is about getting people back to work. I will fight everyday as a State Senator for my fellow small business owners in this district.”
ben dover
2:11 pm on Tuesday, July 31, 2012
So, a guy who contributes $ to Deval Partrick, Obama's twin, and who is supported by his good friend Cory Atkins, of the same hometown as the current senator, a RINO at best, has the gall to attack Sandi Martinez. Wow. No question about who IS and is NOT qualified in this race and who will give 150% to the job. And, it ain't this guy.
Hank from Bedford
2:17 pm on Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Anyone who really believes that changing the one one "...and..." to "...or...", (or vice versa, as the context suggests), is sufficient to correct a special-interest-loaded statute, needs a course in the logic of language, (and in particular, of how these pieces of legislation are customaryily written.
Although Greg Howes agrees with Sandi Martinez as to the need for revision of this statute, Sandi is miles ahead of him in terms of her deeper understanding of same. [Incidentally, her distinct advantage in this regard issues from her many decades of dedicated public involvement in what Government can ---and often does--- do TO impede the Common Good.
Sandi
10:37 pm on Wednesday, August 1, 2012
These are the first half of the comments writted by Mike Hruby from "New Jobs for Massachusetts" in response to Greg:
Howes' response consists of half-truths and plain inaccuracies.
The Independent Contractor Law does not prevent anyone from starting a business
If by this statement Howes means "forming a company" in the most general sense, he is right. But if he means "operating a business and transacting work for customers" in the usual sense then he is thoroughly wrong. An accountant cannot, under the present law, work as an independent subcontractor to an accounting firm. A nurse cannot work as a contractor to a clinic, since nursing services are the main line of business of the clinic. He isn't thinking through what he writes.
would benefit from amending the test by simply replacing the word “and” with “or”
This is true, the one-word change would allow some contracting businesses to contract somewhat more easily for some business. The problem with this single change is that the Massachusetts courts get to decide, not the individual business, which side of the "or" definition the company is on. Howes might not know this. This is a case law issue, one of the hidden traps of this IC legislation.
Sandi
10:38 pm on Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Here is the 2nd half of Mike Hruby's comments:
The change would bring Massachusetts into alignment with the IRS test for determining contractor status
Flatly untrue. The IRS has a carefully constructed 20-point test that has worked across the country for several generations. The 20-point test works well in separating actual contracting from sham transactions, and is impartial. Massachusetts' super-rigid 3-point test was devised by the unions to be biased against employers in the construction trades. The one-word change would improve the Mass IC Law but no such change can fix our law to align it with the 20-point test. That obsesrvation is true in both law and math.
getoutthetruth
11:35 pm on Wednesday, August 1, 2012
I have many friends who worked as consultants in the computer and engineering industry.
The independent contractor rules forced many of them out of their lucrative consulting roles driving down their income, limiting their employment opportunities and experiences, forcing them to leave a job after a year or force them back into corporate America because of regulations! This was happening at a time when corporate America was outsourcing because of the high cost of hiring full time employees. Both were caught in the vice of government over-regulations brought about by an over controlling legislature.
Mr. Howes experience as an insurance agent working in his father's agency does not give him the experience in business that Sandi Martinez has.
We need someone with business experience who has been out their working to get assignments, growing her business from the ground up and knows the roadblocks brought on by government regulations.
That someone is Sandi Martinez!