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Michigan Draws Line In Corporate Sand
by Maureen Sirhal
In office for just days, new Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm already is making good on her campaign pledge to get tough on corporations. Granholm last week signed an executive order that bar the state from contracting with businesses found guilty of fraudulent behavior, or found to have violated state or federal labor and environmental rules.
"We want to do business only with companies with a good environmental record, a good workers' rights records and [that practice] good corporate governance," Granholm spokeswoman Mary Dettlof said. "All of the department directors have been instructed to review all state contracts as they stand now."
Dettlof said it is unclear whether the order would rule out firms like WorldCom. Right now Michigan is bidding a sizable contract for its Link Michigan project, which aims to subsidize the rollout of high-speed Internet services to every region of the state. Still, she said the orders should serve as a warning to firms that doing business with the state of Michigan means exhibiting good corporate citizenship.
Money Matters May Trump Privacy In States
As state governments confront massive budget deficits totaling nearly $100 billion, privacy measures will be placed on the legislative backburner, several experts said this week.
With the exception of California, Bill Gausewitz, assistant vice president at the American Insurance Association, said in a press call Tuesday that most states are too inundated with other priorities to address privacy concerns.
"I don't get the sense that it's the kind of issue, outside of California, that it's been in previous years, with the state budget fights and other issues" bubbling to the forefront of the legislative agenda. "I could easily be wrong, but I don't think we are going to see a knock-down, drag-out [privacy] fight in many other states except California."
But for California, financial privacy and online privacy will be huge issues, he said. Two measures there would limit information sharing within industries such as financial services, and Gausewitz there is a strong likelihood that "some privacy bill will pass" in California. State lawmakers scheduled a committee hearing next week on privacy issues.
"This budget situation is very, very serious for all state governments. Nonetheless, we have to keep a close eye on other activities," said Emily Hackett, the director of state relations for the Internet Alliance. She predicted that the growth of unwanted commercial e-mail, or spam, is going to be the driving Internet issue among state legislatures this year and suggested that lawmakers who want to act on privacy in 2003 will use anti-spam bills as the vehicle to do so.
I Know Where You Drove Last Summer
In other privacy news, the National Consumer Coalition's Privacy Group chided a task force formed by the Oregon state legislature for suggesting that the state could bolster revenue by installing tracking devices on cars to calculate mileage taxes.
A draft plan offered by the Road User Fee Task Force in November suggests that Oregon could supplement gas taxes with a system that would track the mileage of automobiles and charge owners a percentage tax based on the number of miles they drive in the state. The taxes or fees would be collected at gas stations, according to the draft report.
The National Consumer Coalition has dubbed the task force its "Privacy Villain of the Week" because of the idea, citing concerns that the proposal evades serious questions over personal privacy created by the installation of tracking devices in cars.
"The [global-positioning] system is virtually impossible to implement without loss of a privacy," the coalition said. "Even a scheme that would collect taxes ... through anonymous, encrypted, digital cash (not that the federal government or the Federal Reserve is likely to ever countenance such a technology) would leave a data trail pointing to the car owner's home address."
Don't Register, Don't Call
South Carolina may take a new approach to banning unsolicited telemarketing calls. State lawmakers have introduced a measure that would ban telemarketing unless consumers have agreed in advance to accept such calls.
Rep. G. Ralph Davenport, a Republican, introduced the bill, H. 3013, which would create a database of state consumers that choose to receive commercial telephone solicitations and would prohibit calls to anyone outside the list. The bill also would ban the sale of telephone or wireless-device numbers of consumers who are not registered to the list.
2003: The Year of UCITA?
If states accomplish one thing in 2003 to boost commerce, it should be the adoption of model legislation to modernize state contract laws for electronic transactions, a technology think tank concluded in a study released Wednesday.
The new study by the Progress and Freedom Foundation (PFF) is calling on state lawmakers to adopt the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA), which was developed by the National Conference of Commissioners of Uniform State Laws. The model legislation would provide a uniform framework across all states for the licensing of information technology products, including software and databases.
"UCITA is designed to modernize contract law in response to the demands of commerce in the digital age," said Kent Lassman, director of PFF's Digital Policy Network and author of the study. "Existing laws do not provide an adequate foundation for the efficient exchange of rights for the digital goods increasingly seen in the marketplace."
By adopting UCITA, states could spur the digital economy by reducing transaction costs and providing certainty within the market, Lassman said. To date only two states, Maryland and Virginia, have passed legislation to codify UCITA.
Mayors, Other Officials To Tackle Tech Issues
E-commerce and privacy will be on the agenda when government and private-sector workers gather at a Tuesday legal workshop.
The FTC, Better Business Bureau (BBB) of Chicago and Northern Illinois, Electronic Retailing Association, and Promotion Marketing Association are co-hosting the event to familiarize marketing executives, business owners, law-firm generalists, in-house counsels and government employees on developments in advertising law.
Speakers will include, Steven Baker, director of the FTC's Midwest Region, as well as the heads of the co-sponsoring organizations.
Meanwhile, the nation's mayors are gathering in Washington on Jan. 22 to discuss ways to revive the economy and secure the homeland. As the U.S. Conference of Mayors hosts its annual winter meeting, members will meet with Bush administration officials, lawmakers, and business and nonprofit leaders to address issues facing American cities.
The draft agenda includes discussions on streamlining state sales-tax systems and on border and homeland security.
Small Business In The Silver State
Philipp Harper, a columnist at Microsoft's bCentral Internet site, has named Nevada the best state for small-business entrepreneurs. His non-scientific study was based on various business statistics.
Citing Nevada's pro-growth regulatory climate, low tax burdens and affordable housing, the site dubbed the Silver State the leader in entrepreneurship. Nearly 70 percent of housing there, for example, is affordable to consumers with median incomes.
Florida, Texas and Alabama finished second through fourth in the survey, Virginia tied Arizona for fifth place; and Tennessee, Colorado, South Carolina and Georgia finished the top 10.
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