Debunking the "job-killing regulations" myth

Job-killing regulations. 

How many times have we heard this rhetoric from big businesses opposing new regulations while pretending that they are concerned about small businesses?  Yet polls of small business owners find that most understand the need for regulations. 

I outlined the results of one of these recent polls in an opinion editorial in The Hill.  The poll was conducted by Lake Research for three national business organizations, one of which is the American Sustainable Business Council (I serve as the Co-Chair of the Action Fund for the ASBC).  A summary of this poll is below.

But first, let’s look at how accurate the predictions have been of jobs to be lost from the passage of past “job-killing regulations”.

A new report released today by Public Citizen reviews 8 major regulations that have been implemented since the 1970’s.  Industry representatives directly impacted by these regulations predicted that if these regulations were put into effect, up to 55 million American jobs would be lost

These predictions included 1.5 million jobs to be lost due to requiring cars to get better fuel economy.  Up to 2 million jobs were predicted to be lost because of amendments to the Clean Air Act.  Forty-Three million jobs were supposed to be lost due to banning the use of lead in gasoline.  Public Citizen reviews these predictions and contrasts them with what really happened after each new regulation went into effect.   It’s a fun read.

Did we actually lose up to 55 million jobs due to these 8 regulations?  Of course not.  It is a frightening prediction.  But the 55 million predicted lost jobs is actually nearly 5 times greater than the current number of unemployed in this country, 11.3 million. 

Are there too many people unemployed in this country?  Of course.  Are these 11.3 million unemployed due to the 8 regulations (or any regulations) reviewed by Public Citizen? Absolutely not.

Yet the “job-killing regulations” fear mongering goes on today even though history has shown us that we should take these scare tactics with a mountain of salt.

Here is an excerpt from my opinion editorial on the small business owners poll on regulations that I mentioned above:

Contrary to anti-regulations rhetoric, 78 percent of small business owners see government standards as an important tool to level the playing field with big business and 86 percent view regulations as a necessary component of a modern economy: 93 percent agreed that their business could live with fair regulations and 78 percent agree that some standards are important to protect small businesses from unfair competition. Moreover, 76 percent said that regulations on the books should be enforced.

Small business owners express strong support for specific rules and standards:

•    84 percent support food safety standards
•    80 percent support product safety standards
•    80 percent support disclosure and regulation of toxic materials
•    79 percent support ensuring clean air and water
•    78 percent support rules to prevent health insurance companies from increasing rates excessively
•    67 percent support rules to curtail financial speculation by Wall Street and banks.
•    61 percent support moving the country towards energy efficiency and clean energy.

ASBC Partner of the Year Award

I arrived in DC late yesterday afternoon and will be here through Thursday for the American Sustainable Business Council's Annual Business Summit.  Last night I and the South Carolina Small Business Chamber were honored at a reception with the first Annual Award for Partner of the Year.

S.C. businesses have new financing option

For more information about this story, contact Frank Knapp at sbchamber@scsbc.org or 803-252-5733.

 

GSA Business
July 31, 2013

The S.C. Small Business Chamber of Commerce has joined a Mission Markets online crowd-funding portal that gives businesses access to financing and donation-based investment resources.

Chamber President Frank Knapp said the portal gives businesses and non-profits conducting a business enterprise another avenue to gain access to capital.

The portal, called “Invest in a New Economy,” is a partnership between the Small Business Chamber, American Sustainable Business Council and Mission Markets Inc., a New York-based securities firm. Applications are being accepted and the portal is expected to go live by the end of August.

“Any business in this state or nonprofit conducting a business enterprise will be able to use this portal,” Knapp said Wednesday.

He said there will be an application fee of about $100 and applicants will automatically become members of the chamber.

The portal allows S.C. businesses to seek capital through donation crowd-funding, which involves asking the public to make donations toward a project or business activity. Financing options also are available through private placements that involve high-income individuals investing in a business for an equity position; and — if approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission — through individuals who make relatively small investments in a business for an equity position.

Knapp’s posting on the chamber website said the Mission Markets crowd-funding portal is another option to seek capital “for the entrepreneurs and small business owners who just don’t have the equity or capital assets a financial institution needs for a loan or a line of credit.”

He said the Columbia-based chamber, with more than 5,000 members, is working with Mission Markets “because of its mission to do good, its technology to enable these proprietary blended portal networks and its goal of reaching across organizations.”

“By offering small businesses access to equity from accredited investors, and donation-based crowd financing, we are helping local communities to thrive in a socially responsible manner,” Knapp said.

https://www.gsabusiness.com/news/48446-s-c-businesses-have-new-financing-option

                                                                     

Climate Change Preparedness and the Small Business Sector

American Sustainable Business Council
Small Business Majority

July 25, 2013

U.S. small businesses – widely recognized as the backbone of the U.S. economy – are particularly at risk from extreme weather and climate change and must take steps to adapt, according to a new report from Small Business Majority (SBM) and the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC).

Titled “Climate Change Preparedness and the Small Business Sector,” the report concludes: “Because small businesses are distinctly critical to the U.S. economy, and at the same time uniquely vulnerable to damage from extreme weather events, collective actions by the small business community could have an enormous impact on insulating the U.S. economy from climate risk.”

From page 8 & 9 of the report:

Frank Knapp, Jr., CEO, South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, and Sandra Bridges, Co-Owner, Palmetto Hammock & Resort Shoppe

Charleston, South Carolina

Frank Knapp, Jr., President and CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, is leading an initiative throughout coastal South Carolina to educate the public on the vulnerability of the area’s local economy to sea level rise, which is predicted to rise 6 feet by 2100, according to NOAA. Knapp’s initiative, known as South Carolina Businesses Acting on Rising Seas (SCBARS), stems from the economic impact that sea level rise could have on this region, and includes grassroots advocacy efforts to garner support from local businesses.  The initiative, of which ASBC is a partner, educates the public by visibly illustrating with signs in local neighborhoods where sea level could reach by 2100. SCBARS encourages tourists to be local advocates for preserving the South Carolina coast.

One local business that Knapp has worked with is Palmetto Hammock & Resort Shoppe, a retail store selling outdoor equipment, apparel and accessories in the historic market district of Charleston, SC.  Palmetto Hammock is jointly owned by Carl Dupree and Sandra Bridges, and was established in 2003. 

Bridges’ small business is located in a favorite shopping area for both residents and tourists, and is housed in a freestanding building with 1,000 square feet of retail display space. According to Knapp, the building Palmetto Hammock is located in is projected to have four feet of sea water at high tide at the end of the century. To raise awareness about this risk for tourists and other businesses in downtown Charleston, Bridges has posted a sign on her store’s front door, and blue tape that indicates the level at which the sea could reach by 2100.

For Bridges, there is little she can do to prepare her business for the potential physical impacts of sea level rise, but participating in Knapp’s SCBARS’ effort is one way to bring attention to the issue and its possible impact on tourism and local business in Charleston.

With more than 190 miles of coastline and 600,000 acres of tidal wetlands, South Carolina is especially susceptible to the effects of sea level rise and storm surge due to hurricanes and tropical storms. The state’s beaches and coastal communities are critical to South Carolina’s economic well-being, providing recreational opportunities, commercial port access, commercial fisheries, and a foundation for the state’s flourishing tourism economy.

In fact, a 2010 report to the Environmental Protection Agency reported that tourism has emerged as South Carolina’s primary growth industry, and state economic officials estimate that one job is created for every 120 visitors. Tourists to the Grand Strand, Hilton Head, and Charleston areas alone account for approximately $5 billion of the $9 billion spent by tourists in the state each year.

Bridges notes that while tourists are not currently bothered by wading through the occasional flood, attitudes may change if this becomes a more frequent or severe occurrence.

Read more….

 

Blue Tape Marks Climate Change Risks for Coastal Businesses

Bloomberg Businessweek
July 25, 2013

By John Tozzi

 

Sandy Bridges, the owner of Palmetto Hammock in Charleston’s historic market district, is accustomed to flooding in her gift shop, so she keeps the floor clear of the hammocks, clothing, and tourist knick-knacks she sells. The 150-year-old building she occupies is two blocks from Charleston Harbor, and if it rains when the tide is high, the water comes up to her doorstep and sometimes over it. “The wooden flooring is old ship’s decking,” she says. “They understood we were going to get wet.”

The 19^th century South Carolinians who built on the Charleston peninsula didn’t anticipate how wet. Scientists expect sea levels to rise between 8 inches and 6 feet by the end of this century, putting low-lying coastal businesses at risk. To make the threat of climate change clear to her customers, Bridges joined a campaign last week to mark where the high tide in 2100 would be if the worst of those scenarios comes true. A strip of sky-blue tape near the handle of her door indicates the spot. “Where I’m standing right now, the water would be up to my chest,” she says.

About 90 businesses so far have agreed to put tape, decals, or posters in shop windows. The campaign is part of a larger effort to draw attention to the risks that climate change poses to small businesses. “The tourism industry in our state is primarily a small business industry,” says Frank Knapp, president of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, which is recruiting businesses along with the American Sustainable Business Council. “There’s not much greater threat to our tourism industry  

than a destroyed coast.”

Photograph by Kate Thornton for Bloomberg Businessweek

The American Sustainable Business Council and another advocacy group, the Small Business Majority, plan to release a report Thursday showing that “small businesses with fewer locations and limited resources are particularly vulnerable to devastating extreme weather events,” according to a news release from the group.

It’s not hard to imagine Charleston’s low-lying retailers under water, especially after seeing hurricanes flood homes and businesses from New Orleans to New Jersey. When Hurricane Hugo landed in South Carolina in 1989, Bridges says, the property she now occupies had water up to the attic. She knows that businesses near the sea live with the risk of devastating storms, but she’s hoping it’s not too late to keep the coastline from permanently creeping upland. “If the water keeps rising, I feel there’s not going to be much hope to maintain this area,” she says.

Knapp’s group, which has about 5,000 members, hopes that changing tourists’ hearts and minds will prod Washington to act. Visitors to the campaign’s website can send messages to lawmakers urging them to curb carbon emissions and support clean energy sources. There’s little hope of that happening in the current Congress, where Republicans are trying to block White House plans to limit power plant pollution.

Knapp wants at least to show what’s at stake for coastal businesses in the “very red state” of South Carolina. “This is about protecting the South Carolina coastal tourism economy,” he says. The damage from climate change, Knapp says, won’t be felt “in my lifetime. It might be in my daughter’s. It’s definitely in my grandkids’.”

original article

Small business owners support Obama’s clean energy and environmental policies, poll shows

The Washington Post
June 27, 2013

By J.D. Harrison

Most small business owners support some of the climate control and clean energy plans outlined this week by the Obama administration, according to a poll released Thursday.

More than three-fourths (79 percent) of small employers think the the government should set a national goal to increase energy efficiency by half over the next decade, and nearly twice as many believe government incentives for clean energy innovation should be a high or top priority than believe they should be a low or non-priority.

The results are part of a report released by the American Sustainable Business Council, a business advocacy and research organization. David Levine, the group’s chief executive, noted that most of the responses did not vary based on respondents’ political persuasions.

“Small business owners across the country and across the political spectrum believe that clean energy makes sense not only for the environment, but it makes good business sense, too,” Levine said in an interview. “There’s a recognition that these clean energy policies really are better for their financial bottom lines.”

During a speech in Washington on Tuesday, Obama announced several ambitious proposals aimed at reversing recent climate changes and making the country more self-sufficient. Most notably, he ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to limit carbon dioxide emissions for coal- and gas-powered utilities by 2015.

“I refuse to condemn your generation and future generations to a planet that’s beyond fixing,” Obama told students during the event at Georgetown University.

Small business owners support that objective, too. Nearly two-thirds think the EPA should cap emissions in existing power plants, including 86 percent of Democrats and 54 percent of Republicans.

More than half of employers believe the government should also encourage banks to consider environmental criteria when evaluating loan applications and investment opportunities, according to the poll, which was based on 515 responses from employers with fewer than 100 employees. Sixty-three percent support a government mandate that would require 20 percent of electricity to be generated from sustainable energy sources.

It’s a slightly surprising stance from a group that is often considered purely anti-regulations and anti-government involvement, but one small business owner noted that these rules would mainly affect large energy and electricity producers, not firms on Main Street.

Susan Labandibar, president of Tech Networks of Boston in South Boston, Mass., added that devastation from recent natural disasters, including Hurricane Sandy and the twisters in the Midwest, has probably prompted some small employers to take climate shifts more seriously.

“Small businesses are uniquely vulnerable to severe weather events, and there has been a huge amount of disruption from some of these storms,” Labandibar said, noting that her own firm was hit hard by Sandy.

Meanwhile, Levine says the overarching “businesses-hate-regulations” notion has been fueled by policy discussions that have more to do with political sparring than reviving the economy.

“This shows that, when you ask some of these questions outside of the political arena, you get a different take than what you hear in Congress,” he said. “We need to change the dialogue in Washington, and get away from party-line rhetoric and talk more about what’s actually good for business and what’s actually good for the economy.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/small-business-owners-support-obamas-clean-energy-and-environmental-policies-poll-shows/2013/06/27/37248e60-de9d-11e2-b2d4-ea6d8f477a01_story.html

New Poll of Small Business Owners

Reveals Strong Bipartisan Support for Clean, Safe Energy, Including Measures in Obama’s Climate Plans

Large Majorities in Both Parties Want Increased Limits on Carbon Emissions, Energy Efficiency, Disclosure of Chemicals Used in Fracking and More

To view the full survey results, visit: http://bit.ly/ASBCEnergyEnvironmentPollReport

June 27, 2013, Washington, D.C. – A national, scientific poll shows that small business owners across party lines, support safer, cleaner, more efficient and renewable energy. The poll, which asked a range of energy and environment questions, including some in President Obama’s climate proposals announced this week, was commissioned by the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC), a business policy group of which the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce is a member.

 Frank Knapp Jr, President and CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce (SCSBCC) and Chairman of the ASBC Action Fund said, “This poll reaffirms what the SCSBCC has been saying for many years.  We need to protect our small business tourism industry from rising sea levels that will put coastal business communities like Cherry Grove and Folly Beach underwater, flood much of Charleston and wash away most of the state’s beaches.  The solution is to transition our country to a clean energy economy that dramatically cuts carbon emissions since they lead to climate change and rising sea levels.”

Richard Eidlin, Director of Public Policy for ASBC said, “Large majorities of small business owners want the country to focus on energy development that is clean and renewable. Whether Republican, Democratic or Independent, they want the government to promote energy efficiency and clean technologies and don’t want our tax dollars to continue subsidizing coal, oil and gas.”

 The poll, conducted by Lake Research, was designed to gauge opinions on several policy issues currently under consideration in states and in Washington, DC. The telephone survey included 47% Republican, 14% Independent and 27% Democratic business owners.

Key findings from the survey are:
--79% of small business owners support increasing energy efficiency by 50% over next ten years.
--72% of small business owners think incentives for clean energy are a priority.
--63% of small business owners support EPA efforts to limit carbon dioxide emissions of power plants.
--62% of small business owners oppose continuing subsidies to oil, gas and coal companies.
--63% of small business owners support a national renewable energy standard.
--57% of small business owners want banks and other investors to include environmental benefits in business investment decisions.
--80% of small business owners support requiring disclosure of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

 

ASBC is collecting signatures of small business owners in support of the climate declaration, launched recently by BICEP (Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy) and signed by 150 larger companies, including General Motors Co., Unilever, IKEA, Stonyfield Farm and more than 100 ski areas. The declaration calls on U.S. policymakers to capture the economic opportunities of addressing climate change. It can be found here: http://asbcouncil.org/campaigns/sign-climate-change-declaration-today

To view the full survey results, visit: http://bit.ly/ASBCEnergyEnvironmentPollReport

 Poll results represent findings from a scientific national phone survey of owners of small businesses (with 2 to 99 employees), commissioned by the American Sustainable Business Council and conducted by Lake Research Partners. The nationwide live phone survey was conducted between March 14-25, 2013. It has a margin of error of +/- 4.4%.

###

The American Sustainable Business Council and its member organizations represent more than 165,000 businesses nationwide, and more than 300,000 entrepreneurs, executives, managers, and investors. The council includes chambers of commerce, trade associations, and groups representing small business, investors, microenterprise, social enterprise, green and sustainable business, local living economy, and women and minority business leaders. ASBC informs and engages policy makers and the public about the need and opportunities for building a vibrant and sustainable economy. www.asbcouncil.org

 

 

 

The G8 nations and small businesses have something in common

The split in business opinion (see story below) on whether the economic world powers represented at the G8 summit should crack down on offshore tax havens that deprive nations of corporate tax revenue is easily understood. 

Organizations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represents multinational corporations, want to protect their big dues paying members from paying their fair share of taxes.  Organizations representing small businesses, like the American Sustainable Business Council, want to protect their members from subsidizing the government services multinational corporations receive from the countries where they avoid paying taxes. 

Multinational corporations are the “takers” and we are the “givers”.  And we’re tired of getting screwed.  Apparently so are the G8 nations based on their declaration this morning on combatting tax avoidance.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I serve as chairman of the American Sustainable Business Council Action Fund.)
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The Wall Street Journal
June 18, 2013

The Morning Risk Report: Companies Divided on Taxation as G8 Zeroes In

The business community is making noise about one of the top agenda items at this week's G8 summit, corporate taxes, but the conversation sounds more like a shouting match than a chorus.

By Christopher M. Matthews

The business community is making noise about one of the top agenda items at this week’s G8 summit, corporate taxes, but the conversation sounds more like a shouting match than a chorus. Dueling letters sent to the White House this month about corporate taxation, and more specifically, cracking down on tax havens, seem to indicate that many companies don’t see eye-to-eye on the issue.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who’s hosting the leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations, has said corporate taxes are a top priority. The issue is one that President Obama, who hopes to reform the tax code, can get behind. “Tax avoidance is as much about countries and country rules as it is about companies, because the loopholes that the companies use are the results of the rules that countries set,” White House international-economic-policy coordinator Carolyn Atkinson, told reporters before leaving for Europe. Obama hopes to translate international support into political capital back home.

He’ll need it, because back in the U.S., there is little consensus on the issue, even among the corporate community that arguably stands to lose the most. In a letter to the White House earlier this month the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, and others expressed concern about aggressive efforts to crack down on corporate tax evasion. “Recent tax initiatives in a number of foreign countries, including several of our G8 partners, appear to be primarily targeting American companies with global operations in the guise of combating tax avoidance, potentially harming both the U.S. companies’ competitive position and the U.S. Treasury,” they wrote in the letter.

Meanwhile, the American Sustainable Business Council, which represents 165,000 businesses, and non-profit group Avaaz sent competing letters to the White House. Avaaz said its letter was signed by 15,000 business owners. “Tax dodging deprives our nation of revenue needed to maintain and modernize the infrastructure and services underpinning a strong economy,” ASBC Executive Director David Levine wrote in the letter. The council also released a poll that found that 85% of small business owners oppose a territorial tax system, which the Chamber advocates and which critics say allows U.S. companies to shield overseas profits from domestic taxation. At least one major U.S. company has put its name on the issue, as Google’s Eric Schmidt said he welcomed the taxation debate (if not exactly advocating a specific change.)

http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-255673/ 

 

Sign the Climate Change Declaration Today

Sign the Climate Change Declaration today  http://asbcouncil.org/campaigns/sign-climate-change-declaration-today

Business Leaders Support Safe Chemicals Efforts by Senators Lautenberg and Vitter

Economic Growth in Tandem with Health and Environmental Protections

WASHINGTON, May 22, 2013 — Today, Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and David Vitter (R-LA) announced a bipartisan compromise bill, the Chemical Safety Improvement Act, to reform the Toxic Substances Control Act. The following statement is from David Levine, Cofounder and CEO of the American Sustainable Business Council.

 

The American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC) applauds the bipartisan leadership of Senators Lautenberg and Vitter for addressing the need to fix our broken system of protection from toxic chemicals.  We are especially encouraged that this effort acknowledges our core belief that economic growth and protections for health and the environment are not at odds. We can and must provide safe, environmentally benign alternatives to hazardous chemicals and do so at a lower cost. This is what consumers want, and it is what is driving change in the industry.

While this version of the Chemical Safety Improvement Act  is a step forward, work still needs to be done on the bill to strengthen the incentives for investment in green chemistry. ASBC is concerned that a component that specifically supported Green Chemistry and Engineering research and development, included in an earlier version of the bill, has been omitted in this version. Incentives are crucial to spur the innovation necessary to create safer chemicals, which in turn will grow business and create jobs. 

ASBC’s independent polling shows that small business owners across the board support reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The poll of small business owners – 47% Republican, 27% Democratic and 23% independent – found that 92% support regulations to protect air and water from toxic chemicals and nearly three out of four support requirements for chemical manufacturers to show that their chemicals are safe and disclose toxic chemicals.

 

We look forward to working with Senators Lautenberg and Vitter to maximize the opportunity through this legislation to invest in cleaner, safer and innovative technologies and grow our economy as we protect the communities and employees of our businesses. 

                                                                                   ###

Senators Lautenberg and Vitter Reach Groundbreaking Agreement to Reform Nation's Chemical Laws

Bipartisan Legislation Would Protect Americans From Risks Posed by Exposure to Chemicals

Lautenberg Press Office, 202-224-3224
Wednesday, May 22, 2013

 WASHINGTON, D.C.­Today, U.S. Senators Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) and David Vitter (R-LA) announced a groundbreaking, bipartisan agreement to modernize the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and ensure the safety of everyday consumer products to better protect American families.  Their legislation would significantly update and improve TSCA, which has proven ineffective and is criticized by both the public health community and industry. The Lautenberg-Vitter legislation would, for the first time, ensure that all chemicals are screened for safety to protect public health and the environment, while also creating an environment where manufacturers can continue to innovate, grow, and create jobs.  

The Lautenberg-Vitter “Chemical Safety Improvement Act of 2013” is co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Charles Schumer (D-NY), James Inhofe (R-OK), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and John Hoeven (R-ND).

“This bipartisan agreement is an historic step toward meaningful reform that protects American families and consumers.  Every parent wants to know that the chemicals used in everyday products have been proven safe, but our current chemical laws fail to give parents that peace of mind,” said Senator Lautenberg, who first introduced legislation to reform TSCA in 2005.  “Our bipartisan bill would fix the flaws with current law and ensure that chemicals are screened for safety.”

“Our bill strikes the right balance between strengthening consumer confidence in the safety of chemicals, while also promoting innovation and the growth of an important sector of our economy,” said Senator Vitter, Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee. “Chemical manufacturing is a big part of Louisiana’s economy and across the country, and the Chemical Safety Improvement Act establishes a program that should provide confidence to the public and consumers, by giving the EPA the tools it needs to make critical determinations while providing a more transparent process.  The benefit of such a system is that industry should also have more confidence that the federal system works to facilitate innovation and grow our economy.”

“For far too long, American families have been exposed to chemicals that have never been tested for safety,” said Senator Gillibrand. “This bill will finally allow the EPA to test those chemicals that pose the greatest hazard to our children and pregnant women, and it will give the companies that manufacture the chemicals certainty that what they are selling is certified safe across all 50 States.”

“After almost twenty-five years, Republicans and Democrats have come together on an important and significant environmental reform measure,” said Senator Crapo, Ranking Member of the EPW Subcommittee on Superfund, Toxics and Environmental Health. “The Chemical Safety Improvement Act works to improve the safety of American consumers and ensure that risks from chemical substances are adequately understood and managed, while recognizing the enormous benefit the chemical industry brings to the economy.”

“I am proud to be part of this bipartisan group that came together to solve a critical problem, and I hope it serves as a model for future agreements,” said Senator Manchin. “This bill proves that bipartisan compromise can still work in Washington when people are committed to coming together to find commonsense solutions. Our agreement shows that protecting our health and environment does not have to impede our economic growth.” 

The legislation also has the support of public health advocates and chemical industry representatives.

“This bill is both a policy and political breakthrough.  it gives EPA vital new tools to identify chemicals of both high and low concern, and to reduce exposure to those that pose risks.  And while this bill represents a hard-fought compromise, it opens, at last, a bipartisan path forward to fix our badly outmoded system to ensure the safety of chemicals in everyday use,” said Richard Denison, Senior Scientist, Environmental Defense Fund. 

“From life-saving medicines, to energy efficient build materials, chemistry is responsible for countless innovations that have transformed society. America’s chemical industry is a critical source of economic growth and good-paying jobs across the country.  Achieving sound, balanced TSCA reform that enhances public confidence in the safety of chemicals and enables America to remain the world’s leading innovator is our top priority,” said Cal Dooley, President and CEO of the American Chemistry Council.  “This bipartisan compromise legislation will put safety first, while also promoting innovation, economic growth and job creation – goals that are critical to our industry, to our nearly 800,000 employees and to the many other industries that rely on the products of chemistry.”

In contrast to existing law, the Lautenberg-Vitter “Chemical Safety Improvement Act of 2013” would:

• Require Safety Evaluations for All Chemicals: All active chemicals in commerce must be evaluated for safety and labeled as either “high” or “low” priority chemical based on potential risk to human health and the environment.  For high priority chemicals, EPA must conduct further safety evaluations. 
• Protect Public Health from Unsafe Chemicals: If a chemical is found to be unsafe, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the necessary authority to take action.  This can range from labeling requirements to the full phase-out or ban of a chemical.  
•  Prioritize Chemicals for Review: The Environmental Protection Agency will have to transparently assess risk, determine safety, and apply any needed measures to manage risks.
• Screen New Chemicals for Safety: New chemicals entering the market must be screened for safety and the EPA is given the authority to prohibit unsafe chemicals from entering the market. 
• Secure Necessary Health and Safety Information: The legislation allows EPA to secure necessary health and safety information from chemical manufacturers, while directing EPA to rely first on existing information to avoid duplicative testing. 
• Promote Innovation and Safer Chemistry: This legislation provides clear paths to getting new chemistry on the market and protects trade secrets and intellectual property from disclosure. 
• Protect Children and Pregnant Women: The legislation requires EPA to evaluate the risks posed to particularly vulnerable populations, such as children and pregnant women, when evaluating the safety of a chemical­a provision not included in existing law.
• Give States and Municipalities a Say:  States and local governments will have the opportunity to provide input on prioritization, safety assessment and the safety determination processes, requiring timely response from EPA, and the bill establishes a waiver process to allow state regulations or laws to remain in effect when circumstances warrant it.      

Under current law, the EPA can call for safety testing only after evidence surfaces demonstrating a chemical may be dangerous.  As a result, EPA has only been able to require testing for roughly 200 of the more than 84,000 chemicals currently registered in the United States, and has been able to ban only five dangerous substances since TSCA was first enacted in 1976.  These shortfalls led the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to identify TSCA as a “high risk” area of the law in 2009. 

Comprehensive reform of chemical regulations is important to consumers and job creating businesses that need the ability to compete in the global marketplace. Chemicals are used to produce 96 percent of all manufactured goods consumers rely on every day and over 25 percent of the U.S. GDP is derived from industries that rely on chemicals.

Support the Marketplace Fairness Act

The U.S. Senate will be voting on legislation that will level the playing field for ALL retailers. The bi-partisan Marketplace Fairness Act will treat all transactions - whether online or in the store - equally and put money into state treasuries to invest in essential projects like infrastructure.

Tell your Senators to pass the Marketplace Fairness Act.
Exempting online retailers from having to collect sales tax gives these companies the sizable competitive advantage in retailing of a 4 to 9 percent price over local stores. And it undermines state and local governments by reducing tax revenue for infrastructure development, schools, police, and other services -- investments needed to strengthen our economy.
Passing the Marketplace Fairness Act allows states to enforce their existing laws. Provisions in the bill ensure minimal burden for online retailers to comply. And today's technology puts to rest the excuses that it's too hard to collect multi-state taxes.

Tell your Senators to pass the Marketplace Fairness Act.
Thank you for taking action today!

Richard Eidlin
Policy Director

Tax havens unfair to small businesses

The Washington Post Published: April 22

The latest deficit-reduction plan offered by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson supports the interests of big business at the expense of the United States’ small businesses by calling for adoption of a territorial tax system. In two recent polls, small-business owners have soundly rejected making abuse of offshore tax havens by multinational organizations legal and permanent.

A March poll sponsored by the American Sustainable Business Council and Main Street Alliance found that 85 percent of those surveyed, including 67 percent of Republican small-business owners, opposed a territorial tax system that would exempt foreign profits from U.S. taxes. The National Small Business Association reported that only 16 percent of small business owners they polled supported a shift to the territorial tax system.

Elected leaders should not support any proposal for taxing multinational corporations that small business owners view as wrong and unfair.

Frank Knapp Jr., Washington

The writer is vice chairman of the American Sustainable Business Council.

Original Article

Small business opposes multinational corporations' tax avoidance

The Hill's Congress Blog
April 9, 2013

 

By Frank Knapp, Jr., vice chairman, American Sustainable Business Council

In our highly partisan environment there seems to be very few issues that Republicans, Independents and Democrats agree on. This partisanship is easily seen in Congress but is also alive with voters across the country. Small business owners are often no different than their customers in demonstrating divergent opinions on issues depending on their political preferences.

So when we find an issue on which small business owners agree, regardless of partisan leanings, we should take notice. And when that agreement centers on one of them most contentious matters that Congress will soon be addressing, our elected officials in Washington need to pay close attention. Such is the case involving federal tax fairness between small business and large, multinational corporations.

Small business owners are keenly aware that multinational corporations are legally escaping paying much, and often all, of the highly publicized 35 percent U.S. corporate income tax rate. In a poll released early last year by the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC) and others 80 percent of the small business owners surveyed said that U.S. multinational corporations using accounting loopholes to shift their U.S. profits to offshore tax havens is a problem. Seventy-five percent said that big corporations using tax loopholes harms their own small business.

Accounts of giant businesses like Boeing, General Electric, Pfizer, Microsoft and Honeywell International using offshore tax loopholes to dramatically lower their taxes – often to zero -- are all too common. U.S. Public Interest Research Group just released report showing that each of America’s small businesses on average picks up the tab for $3,067 to cover the costs of tax avoidance by U.S multinational corporations playing the offshore profit-shifting game.

It is clear to small business owners that the ability of these large corporations to minimize their tax liability through offshore tax loopholes is contributing to our nation’s budget problems and is harmful to the small business community. This awareness of multinationals shirking their tax responsibility has resulted in a bipartisan small-business owner consensus on the need of large, multinational corporations to pay their fair share of taxes.

Last month ASBC and the Main Street Alliance (MSA) commissioned a scientific telephone survey of over 500 small businesses across the country. As national business organizations representing small and medium size companies, both ASBC and MSA have advocated for equitable taxation on big business profits to invest in the country’s infrastructure and address the national debt.

Here are some of the overwhelmingly bipartisan consensus results of that ASBC/MSA small-business owner poll just released.

• More than three quarters of small business owners support closing overseas tax loopholes with a unitary combined reporting system:
 75 percent or more of Republican, independent and Democratic small business owners support this approach, which is successfully used by states to stop corporations from shifting the location of profits to avoid taxes.

• More than four out of five small business owners oppose a proposal to institute a territorial tax system (a system that would eliminate U.S. taxes on profits made or shifted offshore):
85 percent of small business owners oppose a proposal for a territorial tax system. Across party lines, at least 67 percent strongly oppose the proposal.

• Small business owners support ending deferral of taxes on foreign profits and requiring US corporations to pay income taxes on income earned overseas:
When asked if foreign earnings of U.S. corporations should be taxed after given credit for foreign taxes paid, 64 percent of small business owners expressed support. Within each party affiliation, at least 62 percent, expressed support.

These results should send a clear signal to Congress and the President from the country’s small business owners. The priority for reforming our nation’s tax code is to stop multinational corporations from using offshore tax havens to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. And these elected leaders are also put on notice to not support any proposal for a territorial tax system for multinational corporations that would lock in what small business owners of all political persuasions view as completely wrong and unfair.

Knapp is vice chairman of the American Sustainable Business Council and president and CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce.

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-a-budget/292645-small-business-opposes-multinational-corporations-tax-avoidance#ixzz2PznClNww

New Poll of Small Business Owners

Reveals Strong Bipartisan Opposition to Corporate Tax Loopholes

First Poll on Overseas Tax Haven Reforms Finds Rejection of “Territorial” Tax System

April 9, 2013, Washington, D.C. – Small business owners oppose the current system for taxing U.S.-based multinational corporations, according to a new poll. The national scientific poll released today by the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC) and the Main Street Alliance (MSA) – two national business policy groups – shows that support for reform is bipartisan and widespread.
 

This new poll is the first to query small business owners on specific policies for addressing overseas corporate tax havens. Current tax law enables companies to defer indefinitely taxes on profits earned overseas. The ASBC-MSA poll tested three possible reforms: ending deferral, instituting a territorial system, and establishing combined reporting. The report of poll results may be found here: http://asbcouncil.org/sites/default/files/library/docs/MSA_ASBC_poll_reportTaxesApril2013.

Key findings from the survey include:

·         More than four out of five small business owners (85%) oppose a territorial tax system, which would permanently exempt offshore profits from U.S. taxation. Across party affiliation, 67% or more are strongly opposed to the proposal.

·         76% of small business owners support closing overseas tax loopholes by implementing a unitary combined reporting system, which would limit the ability of corporations to avoid taxes by shifting profits offshore. A majority (55%) are strongly supportive.

·         64% support ending deferral, a provision of current tax code that allows corporations to indefinitely defer payment of U.S. taxes on profits made or shifted offshore. Across parties at least 62% support this idea.

·         By a margin of more than two to one, small business owners prefer to close corporate tax loopholes rather than cut government programs. Both Democratic and Republican small business owners preferred closing loopholes to cutting spending on education, infrastructure or defense.

·         Respondents in the survey were politically diverse, with a strong plurality of Republicans or Independents who lean Republican: 47% identified as Republican or Independent-leaning Republican; 27% as Democratic or Independent-leaning Democratic; and 26% as Independent or other.

"I’m not afraid as a small business to compete with the big boys," said Henry Passapera, a member of the Main Street Alliance and the co-owner of P&R Trading, an international supplier of airline parts and equipment based in East Rutherford, New Jersey. "But when big corporations use offshore tax havens to avoid their tax responsibility, it puts small businesses like mine at a competitive disadvantage.  If you want to fly the American flag at your corporate headquarters, you ought to pay your fair share of taxes."

“All businesses are hurt when we allow tax loopholes for big companies while cutting budgets for public education, research and infrastructure,“ said Josh Knauer, a business leader in ASBC and President and CEO of Rhiza Labs, a Pittsburgh-based software company. “Tax dollars were a vital component in America's past innovations and infrastructure, fostering economic success. The taxes we pay, wisely invested, are the down payments on our future success.”

“Policy makers now have poll data showing that small business owners are strongly against instituting a territorial system, which would make permanent the broken tax system we have now,” said Scott Klinger, Tax Policy Director for ASBC. “Corporate income taxes as a share of the economy are at a 60-year low, and many U.S. multinational corporations pay higher taxes in foreign nations than they do here. So the last thing we should do is lock in an unearned, anticompetitive deal that will hurt the economy as a whole.”

“Small business owners see two problems with the current system for taxing U.S. multinationals,” said Joshua Welter, Director of Special Projects for MSA. “First, they know we can’t afford these loopholes, since the reduced revenue forces cuts in economy boosting investments, such as education, Social Security and Medicare. Second, the overseas tax structure is a big thumb on the scale for big companies, and a thumb at the nose of small business.”

To view the full survey results, visit: http://asbcouncil.org/sites/default/files/library/docs/MSA_ASBC_poll_reportTaxesApril2013.

Poll results reported here represent findings from a scientific national phone survey of 515 owners of small businesses (with 2 to 99 employees), commissioned by the American Sustainable Business Council and the Main Street Alliance and conducted by Lake Research Partners. The nationwide live phone survey was conducted between March 14-25, 2013. It has a margin of error of +/- 4.4%.

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The Main Street Alliance is a national network of state-based small business coalitions. MSA and its state affiliates create opportunities for small business owners to speak for themselves on issues that impact their businesses and local economies. www.mainstreetalliance.org

The American Sustainable Business Council and its member organizations represent more than 165,000 businesses nationwide, and more than 300,000 entrepreneurs, executives, managers, and investors. ASBC informs and engages policy makers and the public about the need and opportunities for building a vibrant and sustainable economy. www.asbcouncil.org