Preface

The focus of this study is on legislation passed at the state level or what states have done concerning employee ownership. There are three kinds of employee ownership legislation in the United States. The benefits and availability of these benefits vary by the type of legislation. At the federal level there are two types of employee ownership legislation. The first type is legislation that makes resources and services available to all takers. This kind of employee ownership legislation has primarily been federal tax legislation. There have been 19 pieces of federal legislation encouraging and promoting employee ownership primarily through the tax code. The benefits provided by tax breaks are available to all that would take advantage of them. There is an extensive body of knowledge concerning the use of federal tax breaks.

The second kind of federal legislation is federal programs where responsibility for the operation of the program has been delegated to the states. The benefits are available to those states that choose to implement the program. The Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), Title III and the Workforce Investment Act provide resources for preliminary feasibility studies for those states that choose to implement the program. Thirteen states have taken advantage of these resources. Nearly half of these states have state employee ownership programs

The third type of employee ownership legislation is legislation that states choose to pass on their own. At the state level, 28 states have passed employee ownership legislation. Compared to what is known about employee ownership legislation (and its benefits) at the federal level, much less is known about the benefits available at the state level. Legislation at the state level has manifested itself in a variety of forms from simple policy statements to extensive programs set up to assist potential employee-owners at all stages of an employee buyout. This study provides an overview of the variety of employee ownership legislation at the state level.

This study is of importance because it provides information that could benefit those most often unaware of the benefits available at the federal and state level. This includes primarily employees and retiring owners, but also economic development departments, attorneys, employee ownership practitioners, policymakers, and policy entrepreneurs. The information provided here can help expand the set of alternatives available to potential employee owners and the various groups that serve them.

For example, for employees, in a number of different situations, such information can help save their jobs. In the case of shutdown, if Dislocated Worker Unit (DWU) personnel, or the employees to be impacted by a closing plant, are unaware of the resources available from the federal government the plant will most likely shutdown when it possibly could have been saved. Job retention is also of importance to economic development departments and policymakers. An added benefit is that employee ownership anchors capital in the community, which reduces some of the uncertainty of economic development created by capital flight. For retiring owners, employee ownership provides a tax break to the retiring owner and allows the business to remain open. Much more is known about the benefits provided by federal legislation than the benefits provided by state legislation. For attorneys, this resource can provide additional information to retiring owners, employees to be impacted by possible plant closure, and business entrepreneurs, among others, about the advantages and benefits of employee ownership available at the state level.

This study is more than just an update of the original studies that eventually led to the founding of the Ohio Employee Ownership Center at Kent State University (formerly Northeast Ohio Employee Ownership Center) in 1987. This study not only updates the previous study, but it greatly expands upon the themes presented in the earlier study. The data for this study was collected over a two-year period of time. The first step was to review the original study done concerning states’ employee ownership legislation (Ivancic and Logue 1986) and data that had been collected by the Ohio Employee Ownership Center (OEOC) over the years since that study.

It was obvious from such a review that much had changed and there was need for an update of the original study. After all this information had been organized (and reorganized), a Lexis-Nexis search of state employee ownership and worker cooperative legislation was done. The next step was to mail letters to state government departments that may/are/were involved in state employee ownership programs requesting more information about their programs, for example annual reports and any other information persons in these departments could offer. Thirty letters were sent and there were 8 responses (27% response rate). The response rate was quite low due to the fact that a number of programs had ended; policies lapsed, were repealed, or not utilized.

To increase the number of contacts, attempts were made to reach these agencies and departments via telephone and electronic mail. Similar efforts were used to contact people formerly associated with employee ownership programs. When necessary, follow up calls was made to collect more information than was contained in return letters. Nineteen electronic mail letters were sent and there were 12 responses (63% response rate). 26 phone calls were made with 18 responses (69% response rate). A second and third Lexis-Nexis search, was done in February 1998 and March 1999, respectively, to keep as current as possible concerning any new legislation.

The following study is the culmination of this work.

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 768