Corey Rosen
House Committee Passes Bill to Fund State EO Outreach Programs
For an update on this bill, see our May 31, 2022, blog post Bipartisan Senate Draft of New Bill Moves WORK Act Closer to Passage.
Employee Ownership Blog
Corey Rosen
Ownership Works: A New Nonprofit Supporting Employee Ownership
Ownership Works is a new nonprofit funded by $50 million in donations from Pete Stavros, a partner at the investment firm KKR, and 60 other organizations. In an April 5 story on the launch, the Wall Street Journal reported that “among the founding partners are 19 private-equity firms, including Apollo Global Management Inc., Ares Management Corp., KKR & Co., Leonard Green & Partners LP, Silver Lake, TPG Inc., and Warburg Pincus LLC.” Others involved include United for Respect, which has led worker campaigns against private-equity-backed companies, Omidyar Network, and the Ford Foundation.
Corey Rosen
House Bill Adds Tax Benefit for Sellers to ESOPs in S Corporations
On March 29, the House passed the SECURE 2.0 Act (H.R. 2954) by a vote of 414-5. The bill will now go to the Senate. The bill makes two minor improvements for ESOPs plus a number of other changes aimed at making it easier for employers and employees to assure retirement plans work more effectively. Some of these will affect ESOPs.
Loren Rodgers
The New Chair of the NCEO's Board of Directors
Victor Aspengren has succeeded Mary Boettcher as the chair of the NCEO's board of directors as of today. Mary had been the chair of the NCEO's board of directors since 2019; as the chief steward of the organization's mission to help employee ownership thrive, Mary says, " I am grateful for the opportunity to have served as chair of this extraordinary organization for the past three years. What a tumultuous time period for any organization, and none displayed more strength, determination, and agility than the NCEO. NCEO staff continues to deliver outstanding critical educational resources and research to support our employee ownership community and their passion to serve and grow employee ownership is ever-present. I look forward to continuing to serve as immediate past chair on the board of directors for the next two years!"
Corey Rosen
Proposed DOL Regulations on Exempt Transactions Raise ESOP Community Concerns
On March 8, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) proposed new rules for prohibited transaction exemption (PTE) filings, rules that have raised concerns in the ESOP community. These filings are relatively rare, with about 20 per year. While ESOPs are statutorily exempt from having to make these filings, some ESOP professionals are concerned the DOL might subsequently extend the concepts in the proposal to ESOPs.
Corey Rosen
California Bill Would Provide Major Impetus for Employee Ownership
In what would be the most significant step forward by a state yet, Senator Josh Becker has introduced Senate Bill 1407, the Expanding Employee Ownership Act. The bill would provide outreach, financing, and technical assistance for conversions to employee ownership.
Corey Rosen
Minnesota Bill Would Provide Low-Interest Loans for Employee Ownership
HF 3733, a bill to help build community wealth in Minnesota, would create a low-interest loan program to support employee ownership, community land trusts, or cooperatives focused on providing wealth-building opportunities for historically disadvantaged groups, including people of color, women, disabled veterans, and low-income workers. The state would appropriate $15 million in 2023 to provide grants to partner organizations to make the loans, which would be priced at not more than the prime rate. State support for the loan could be for up to $2.5 million. Eligible borrowers must be able to show the project could not be financed without this support. Up to 10% of the funds could be used for technical assistance. Half the principal payments would go to a community wealth-building account the state would create to provide ongoing funding.
Corey Rosen
Why Strong Leaders Can Make Very Bad—and Even Deadly—Decisions
One of the great paradoxes of leadership is that the very qualities that might make someone likely to become a leader of a company—or a nation—can be the very same qualities that can lead to some very bad decisions. Rising to the top usually takes a lot of self-confidence and the ability to make good decisions about a lot of things quickly. But that same self-confidence can turn to arrogance, an arrogance that may discourage those working with you to challenge your assumptions, ideas, and even what you perceive as facts.
Loren Rodgers
COVID Safety at the 2022 Annual Conference
When we started planning this year's conference, we knew we needed a health protocol system that would give people enough foresight to plan a trip many months in advance. Since people have widely different views on COVID safety, we decided that the best approach is to serve people who are more cautious, recognizing that we’d be asking some people to be more cautious than they felt necessary. We have many attendees in high-risk groups, and we also didn’t know what the COVID situation would be by the time April arrived. All of that seemed to argue for a conservative approach.