The cost potential is very, very significant, in the billions of dollars on Pennsylvania employers….The small businessman, the farmer, is going to have to live with a more severe standard...the cost to them is going to be very phenomenal.
Please, dear legislator, do not eliminate my job because you have put the business places in Pennsylvania in a noncompetitive situation where we cannot compete with Ohio, New York, New Mexico, and so forth. Pennsylvania should have our laws consistent with other States so that our manufacturers can continue to employ our neighbors, our sons and grandsons and granddaughters, so that we can work in Pennsylvania, so that we are not driving our people out of the Commonwealth.
I have a greater concern – the concern for rural America, the concern for suburban America, which is a concern for the communities that you and I come from….It goes too far, Mr. Speaker. It puts a burden on our small business places….Think about the small business people, the nonmanufacturing entities, that all of a sudden are going to be forced into reporting requirements and the cost of doing business that is going to put many of them under.
When the City Council was considering the right-to-know law, lobbying was intense. Those opposed to it argued that the tough regulations would drive businesses from the city. That threatened exodus has not happened.
The public does not have [an] inherent right to know.
When the public hears about right-to-know, they think ‘Gee, that sounds great’. But all the information they’re going to get under these laws is a list of plant chemicals that will sit on someone’s kitchen table until it’s thrown away.
There is little doubt that business will have to think twice before expanding or locating a facility in New Jersey.
We have 1,000 products. If every state has different reporting requirements, we’d have to produce 50,000 different [Material Safety Data Sheets].
Labeling all pipes and containers could cost the chemical industry $100 million a year.
This is probably the single most anti-business bill to become law in New Jersey in recent years. The governor’s decision to sign it will cause serious doubts among people in business about the state’s commitment to encouraging growth and jobs.
