Case Studies

MASSACHUSETTS-BASED TRADE ASSOCIATION

BACKGROUND

Our firm had a significant win representing a Massachusetts based business trade association before the legislative and executive branches of Massachusetts state government. The association represents manufacturers and distributors of a highly regulated industry in the state and relied very heavily on our firm to effectively advocate on its behalf before a particularly zealous regulatory scheme. As well, many of the association member companies' products and solutions were under significant legislative scrutiny. Many bills are filed each legislative session that seek to ban the manufacture of particular products and, in effect, force the association’s members to lose Massachusetts as a market in which they can do business.

CHALLENGES

Myriad challenges face the association. Their overall challenge, and that of our firm, in advocating on its behalf, is to keep the respective member companies in Massachusetts. Due to the regulatory and legislative challenges in the state, many former association member companies chose to leave Massachusetts and seek another state in which to establish their headquarters and to conduct business operations. Consequently, the respective sales and revenue became Massachusetts’s loss and another state’s gain.    

A significant, specific challenge for the association is a fee which is levied against member companies - both manufacturers and distributors - to conduct business in the state. The companies are charged a fee based on the number of tons of materials produced and/or distributed by the company. Accordingly, the higher the production/distribution, the greater the amount of the fee. In many respects, member companies thought that they were being “taxed” by the state and that the more success they achieved as a business, the more “tax” they were required to pay. Further, the revenue garnered from these fees is used to fund the state programs which regulate the association’s industry. 

OBJECTIVES

Our firm’s objectives were numerous:

• educate regulators and public policy officials on the business of the association and its members;

• educate said folks on the amount of sales and revenue said member companies produce for the state;

• advocate persuasively on the association’s behalf before several state agencies and specific committees which oversee the regulatory scheme;

• educate legislators/staff on the economic impact of banning production and sales of products manufactured and distributed by member companies.

For purposes of this case study, a key challenge which created a specific objective for our firm was a proposal by state regulators to increase the fee levied against companies. The objective then became a campaign on the association’s behalf to defeat the proposal to increase the already egregious fees.

SOLUTIONS

Our campaign to fight the passage of the proposed increase in member company fees involved a multi pronged approach: 

• Educate regulators and legislators of the positive impact of member companies upon the Massachusetts economy;

• Responsibility for regulators to seek other avenues by which to fund the program; 

• Highlight the historical significance of the legislature’s responsibility to fund programs that are of significant public policy initiatives and the fact that;

  • the legislature has not utilized the annual fiscal year budget process to increase funds for the program; 

• Educate and highlight the fact that the relative regulatory agencies and committees did not articulate a specific need for the additional fees and further; 

  • that one of the motivations for the increase in fees was to compensate for the reduction in funds in other programs under the relative agency’s purview; 

• Lobby members of the committee which would vote to increase the fee; 

  • base arguments upon the above issues;

• Make a presentation on behalf of association at the public meeting during which the debate and vote took place.    

IMPACT

Our campaign proved successful and the proposal to increase fees on the association member companies was voted down. 

Further, in a concerted effort to discover and appreciate the impact of regulations upon business in Massachusetts, the administration undertook a substantive review of all existing regulations and put on hold any newly proposed regulations.