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HISTORY OF THE TEXAS WAREHOUSE ASSOCIATION
The beginning of the Texas Warehouse Association came in 1989 when 7 DFW Metroplex warehousemen met to discuss plans for improving the image of the warehouse industry. State and federal agencies and commissions were daily writing directives and passing laws that would make it difficult for an individual warehouseman to continue to serve customers and make a profit. The seven warehousemen decided that an organized effort was necessary and set out to form a statewide trade association in Texas. This action was taken after it was decided that none of the existing organizations could do the job that was needed.
From that beginning, the Texas Warehouse Association has grown to include 85 member-companies who are operating more than 28 million square feet of Texas warehouse space and who employ in excess of 5,000 people, Appraised value of real estate is in excess of $750 million and annual payroll exceeds $175 million.
During our first year of existence, The Texas Legislature moved to place our storage and handling rates on the state sales tax list which would have required us to increase our rates by 6.25% or absorb that amount in reduction of profits. We were able to use our new organization strength to keep our sales tax exemption. In that year we started our effort to eliminate Texas intrastate trucking regulation. Many shippers were moving their distribution operations out of Texas so that they could ship to their Texas customers using interstate truck rates, which were about one half of the rates required by the Texas Railroad Commission.
Through an overture to the Interstate Commerce Commission, TWA was able to secure an ex parte ruling that stated that shipments from outside the state to a warehouse in the state and then beyond to a customer also in the state, were deemed to be interstate in nature all the way from origin to destination. When enforced by the federal government, this had the effect of lowering the rates on 85% of the freight that warehouses had tendered to Texas common motor carriers. With the very able assistance from Railroad Commissioners Carole Rylander and Barry Williamson, we were able to deregulate Texas intrastate trucking. The Texas Warehouse Association was the group directly responsible for accomplishing this very important declaration.
In 1995, the legislature tried again to remove our sales tax exemption and we were again able to save our industry a large portion of our distribution business. In the 1995 session of the legislature we proposed HB 2608 which would have extended the Freeport Amendment to all parts of Texas, it passed the House by 114-20, but we were unable to get a bill out of the senate. This was our first attempt to reduce the impact of the Texas Inventory Tax which has caused the loss of at least 27,000 jobs in Texas.
During the 2001 and 2003 sessions, we have proposed
legislation to ease the impact of the inventory tax upon our customers and have
failed to prevail because of political pressure from various sources. We will
again propose legislation during the 2005 session with a house bill sponsored by
Representative Norma Chavez and a senate bill sponsored by Senator Robert
Duncan. These bills are very important to our industry and to the further
economic development of our state. Passage of the bills would stop the erosion
of our distribution business to surrounding states and terrific loss of jobs
that has occurred in the last dozen years. Copies of these bills are available
through the association office. We ask that you contact your state senator and
representative asking for his/her support of this important effort. While our legislative efforts are important, they are not the only contributions made by your association. Dozens of calls have been received at the association office from members and member’s customers for assistance with state and federal agencies and commissions. Most of these problems are brought about by a total misunderstanding on the part of both parties and the problems have been worked out readily. Since the association represents the entire industry, we can take stands that an individual may we hesitant to take.
Your association has intervened in controversies with such agencies and commissions as EPA, both state and federal, Texas Department of Health, Texas Department of Agriculture, Comptrollers Offices, Governor’s Office, Texas Department of Licensing & Regulation, The U. S. Surface Transportation Board, OSHA, both state and federal, and others. We have been able to make them understand us and we have been better able to understand them.
The association has donated $45,000 to the Texas Logistics Education Foundation and over the years that we have made these contributions, they amount of about 20% of our gross revenue.
We have sponsored or co-sponsored seminars on such subjects as Safety, Employer-Employee Relations, Hazardous Material Handling & Storage, Computers, Insurance, Warehouse Management Systems and others. We will continue to sponsor programs that are of interest to our members. We work in concert with the International Warehouse Logistics Association on most of their educational programs and in most cases, members of this association who are not members of IWLA can have the benefit of a “member cost” on IWLA seminars.
The association has an agreement with the Sibley Group, a registered lobby group in Washington and Austin. Sibley will assist our association in the passage of legislation to allow exemption from the Texas Inventory Tax law and thereby save our customers from tax liabilities for inventory that they deposit in Texas warehouses. Many of our former customers have removed their distribution operations from our warehouses to warehouses in surrounding states and Mexico, solely for the purpose of avoiding our state’s inventory tax. Our legislative efforts and Sibley’s assistance are aimed at reducing, or eliminating, the tax liabilities of our customers and thereby allowing them to continue to deposit products in Texas warehouses.
We are open to suggestions from any and all who may have input for us. |
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peter@tqms.com with
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