OPINION POLL: SMALL BUSINESSES SAY WEAK CUSTOMER DEMAND, NOT REGULATIONS, THEIR PROBLEM

National poll finds 78 percent of small businesses say regulations needed to protect small businesses from unfair competition, level playing field with big business; 86 percent see regulations as necessary part of a modern economy

Washington, DC – Small business owners say their main concern is weak customer demand, not regulations, according to independent opinion polling released today.  In fact, when asked what would do the most to create jobs, small business owners’ top response was eliminating incentives to move jobs overseas. Reducing regulation came in fifth place.

Small business owners see government standards as an important tool to level the playing field with big business. In addition to protecting small businesses the vast majority of owners view regulations as a necessary component of a modern economy.  Click here to read the report, based on a national survey of 500 small business owners, released today by the American Sustainable Business Council, Main Street Alliance and Small Business Majority.

“These survey results underscore what Main Street small business owners have been saying all along: we need more customers, more demand, not deregulation,” said Jim Houser, owner of Hawthorne Auto Clinic in Portland, Oregon, and a leader with the Main Street Alliance. “In fact, I’ve seen first-hand from over 35 years in the auto industry that smart standards help create jobs and promote innovation in the U.S. economy.”

“Despite the heated rhetoric, regulations simply aren’t small businesses’ top concern,” said John Arensmeyer, founder and CEO of Small Business Majority. “Small businesses can be the jobs engine we need to jumpstart the economy, but not if legislators are focusing on something that isn’t their top problem. Policymakers should listen to what real small businesses are saying and act accordingly.”

"With football at the top of everyone's mind, if we played the game with no rules the Super Bowl winner would come down to which team was bigger or willing to play dirtier," said Frank Knapp, Jr., Vice Chair of the American Sustainable Business Council and president and CEO of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce.  "Well, regulations are the rules of the game we call private sector competition. An overwhelming percent of small business owners agree that without fair regulations creating a level playing field, small businesses won't be able to compete against big businesses. From our perspective, the effort to kill regulations is big businesses’ way of rigging the game in their favor."

Key findings from the survey include:

• Small business owners see their top problem as weak customer demand, not regulations: 34 percent cited weak customer demand as the most important problem for their business, while only 14 percent named government regulations.
• On the question of what would do the most to create jobs, cutting regulations came in low on the list: the top response was eliminating incentives to move jobs overseas at 24 percent; reducing regulation was fifth at 10 percent.
• Small business owners see an important role for standards and safeguards: 78 percent believe some standards are important to protect small businesses from unfair competition, and 76 percent believe regulations on the books should be enforced.
• Small business owners see regulations as necessary for a modern economy: 93 percent agree their business can live with some regulation if it is fair, manageable and reasonable.
• Small business owners express strong support for specific rules and standards: 78 percent support rules to prevent health insurance companies from increasing rates excessively, 84 percent support food safety standards, 80 percent support product safety standards and 80 percent support disclosure and regulation of toxic materials.
• Small business owners support clean energy policies: 79 percent support ensuring clean air and water, and 61 percent support moving the country towards energy efficiency and clean energy.
• Small businesses believe in streamlining government processes: 73 percent of respondents believe we should allow for one-stop electronic filing of government paperwork.

For more information on these poll findings, visit:            

http://www.asbcouncil.org/poll_regulations.html 

http://mainstreetalliance.org/5511/poll-regs-economy/

http://smallbusinessmajority.org/small-business-research/downloads/020112_Regulations_Poll_Report.pdf

Poll results reported in this statement represent findings from an Internet survey of 500 small business owners nationwide, commissioned by the American Sustainable Business Council, Main Street Alliance and Small Business Majority, and conducted by Lake Research Partners. The survey was conducted between December 8, 2011, and January 4, 2012. It has a margin of error of +/- 4.4%.

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The American Sustainable Business Council is a network of business organizations representing over 100,000 companies and 200,000 business leaders. ASBC advocates for public policies that meet the realities of the 21st century global economy including strategic investments in workforce and infrastructure; standards and safeguards that promote innovation, prevent abuse and protect critical resources; and a new sustainable economic model that fosters a growing, economically-secure middle class. http://www.asbcouncil.org/

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

Small Business Majority is a national nonpartisan small business advocacy organization, founded and run by small business owners, and focused on solving the biggest problems facing America’s 28 million small businesses. We conduct extensive opinion and economic research and work with small business owners, policy experts and elected officials nationwide to bring small business voices to the public policy table. http://www.smallbusinessmajority.org/

Time for the power sector to get to work

The Hill's Congress Blog 
December 22, 2011

By John Arensmeyer, Small Business Majority, and Mindy Lubber, Ceres 

 

The word on the street is the recession is behind us, but times are still tough. The economy is stagnant and businesses of all sizes are still trying to weather the economic storm that forced many to close their doors and left countless workers unemployed. 

For these reasons, every other word out of politicians’ mouths is “jobs,” and how we can protect them and create more. Unfortunately, the rhetoric has reached a fever pitch and “job killing” labels are put on everything from tax cuts to sensible standards that protect our communities and us.

This has happened with new standards announced Dec. 21 that would protect Americans from breathing mercury, lead, arsenic, and acid gases from outdated power plants. Twenty years in the making, these new standards are finally moving into the implementation phase, though there will likely be pushback from some claiming they’ll stifle job growth. That opposition is misguided. In fact, the new rules will create jobs and are supported by Americans and business owners—also known as job creators—across the political spectrum.

A recent Small Business Majority poll found that small business owners’ greatest concern is economic uncertainty about the future, with 46 percent citing it as their top worry. Only 13 percent of small business owners said government regulation is their biggest concern.

If we are to tackle what is really worrying small business owners—economic uncertainty—we should encourage actions that spur economic growth. Allowing the Environmental Protection Agency the ability to regulate harmful emissions such as toxics from power plants is something small business owners believe will do just that.

Small Business Majority’s national poll found 76 percent of small employers support the EPA’s regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, refineries and other major emitters. Adding to that is a recent poll by Ceres—a coalition of businesses, investors, and public-interest groups—that found 77 percent of Americans specifically support the newly announced limits on lead, mercury and other toxic emissions that are being released from power plants.

Those standards—known as the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards—will require power companies to clean up or close their dirtiest, oldest plants, including many built more than half a century ago.

The nation’s utilities will still earn an appropriate return on their investments. Meanwhile, the EPA estimates that new rules will pay back $5 to $13 in health benefits for every dollar power companies spend in complying, so broader communities will benefit, as well.

What’s more, a recent report by the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts found the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard is part of a suite of clean-air standards that will create 1.4 million new jobs over the next five years. These include professional positions, construction and manufacturing jobs, for both large and small companies, from the suppliers’ manufacturing centers all the way to the actual construction sites.

For example, retrofitting a coal-fired power plant with $200 million worth of air pollution control equipment would result in 2,200 jobs, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many of those jobs go to local companies, who supply the concrete services, the excavation and demolition work, or the cranes and trucks. These benefits ripple further through local economies when workers spend their wages.

It’s time that power companies do their part. Other major contributors to mercury-air pollution—including medical and municipal incinerators—have already reduced their emissions, cutting mercury by 95 percent since 1990. And steel and cement makers have also made great strides.

America and its job creators are behind the new power plant rules, and the EPA has acted. Now it’s time to get to work.

Arensmeyer is the founder and CEO of Small Business Majority, an advocacy group founded and run by small business owners. Lubber is President of Ceres, a coalition of investors, public interest groups, businesses, and environmental groups working on sustainability challenges.

Pass this jobs bill

Finally, a jobs plan that actually helps the largest jobs-producing sector to create jobs—small business.

Advocates for small business were thrilled to hear President Obama speak these words last night.

Everyone here knows that small businesses are where most new jobs begin….So for everyone who speaks so passionately about making life easier for “job creators,” this plan is for you.

No more trickle-down proposals for job growth.  The American Jobs Act would infuse money into Main Street by putting more money in the hands of consumers, cut payroll costs for small businesses and reward them for hiring the unemployed especially veterans.

The tax credits for small businesses creating jobs is a particularly sound government policy.  It’s just not a tax cut to big business and cross your fingers that they will hire.  It’s a tax credit that a small business gets only if they hire.  No hiring, no expenditure of government funds.  It’s a pay to play plan government should use more often.

While there is more that needs to be said about how to make the President’s plan work, I’ll leave you with the following statement from my friend John Arensmeyer, CEO of the Small Business Majority.

President’s Jobs Speech Recognizes the Path to Recovery Starts with Small Business

Statement by John Arensmeyer, CEO, Small Business Majority:

Sept. 8, 2011

President Obama’s speech today on the American Jobs Act underscores the fact that all roads to a brighter economic future start with small business. We applaud the president for highlighting the need to cut taxes for small businesses and offsetting those cuts by closing corporate tax loopholes, which do no harm to small firms. Additionally, his focus on putting middle class Americans back to work and boosting their spending power is imperative for our entrepreneurs, as they are small businesses’ primary customers. We have an employment problem, and small businesses create 65 percent of all new jobs. Spotlighting small business will help create a cycle of prosperity that directly benefits the economy by putting America back to work.

However, there is more to do. We encourage lawmakers to develop and support programs that will provide small businesses with the cash flow they need to keep their doors open, pursue new business opportunities and hire more workers, and urge them to support small business innovation, which fuels economic expansion.

Implementing policies that help small businesses get credit, hire and put people to work will not only help unemployment, it will reduce government spending and boost revenue. Fewer unemployed workers means government needs to spend less on social programs and unemployment benefits.

We cannot emphasize enough the need for Congress to act quickly to secure small businesses in their traditional role as job creators, and as a result, get our economy back on the right track. Congress needs to put aside partisan bickering to focus on what really matters. We urge lawmakers to rise above the gridlock that has gripped them for too long and put the public good above politics.

Small Business Majority is a national nonpartisan small business advocacy organization focused on solving the biggest problems facing America’s 28 million small businesses. We conduct extensive opinion and economic research and work with small business owners, policy experts and elected officials nationwide to bring small business voices to the public policy table.

Common Ground???

In his recent “60 Minutes” interview, incoming House Speaker John Boehner stated that he will refuse to “compromise” on his principles but is willing to find “common ground” on issues. So according to Speaker –in-waiting Boehner the $858 tax-cut package the Senate will pass shortly is “common ground” between Congressional Republicans, Democrats and President Obama.

How long the rank and file Tea Party folks are willing to swallow this “chicken crap” I don’t know. Their silence has been deafening on this GOP-caused deficit spending less than two months after the Tea Party apparently gave the Republicans the power to dictate all legislation in Washington.

I’m not saying that there aren’t some “common ground” parts of the Senate bill. But the biggest piece of the bill that was definitely “common ground” was extending the Bush-era tax cuts to all income under $200,000 for an individual and $250,000 for a joint return. Both the Republicans and Democrats said they wanted that. Had they just passed that, we could have limited our deficit spending to about 1/4th of what we will be borrowing from the Chinese under this bill.

But the GOP would have none of this unless income over those limits also got the tax cuts. So off to the deficit spending game we went.

Are there some business benefits in the Obama-GOP deal (oops, is “deal” too close to the word “compromise” for Mr. Boehner’s vocabulary)? Sure there are. But there are plenty of goodies in there that will help the economy (like extending unemployment benefits) and that won’t particularly help the economy (tax cuts for the wealthy and estate tax give-aways for multi-million dollar properties). Most of this was “compromise” regardless of Mr. Boehner’s objection to the term.

From the small business perspective, one truly “common ground” item not making it into the tax-cut package was the universally disliked 1099 IRS reporting requirement included the Affordable Care Act. This provision was estimated to bring in about $19 billion over 10 years to help cover the cost of the ACA. But all the business community and both parties agree that it will be a terrible hardship to comply with because it would require 1099’s for all business purchases of over $600.

According to yesterday's story in POLITICO, Republicans rejected this “common ground”. Just look at the total cost of the package and you know that a mere $19 billion more couldn’t have been the reason.

As my friend John Arensmeyer, CEO of the Small Business Majority, points out in a press release below—this “common ground” was grounded by partisan politics.

Political Gridlock Shouldn’t Hold Up 1099 Fix

Statement by John Arensmeyer, CEO, Small Business Majority

Dec. 13, 2010
Reports of partisan gamesmanship blocking the Senate from fixing the 1099 reporting requirement as part of the recent tax cut deal are not only discouraging but also infuriating. We’re disappointed there are those in Congress who would turn small businesses’ success into a partisan issue. There are millions of small business owners who need relief from this provision, which would place an onerous and unnecessary paperwork burden on them if it goes into effect in 2012.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has tremendous benefits for small businesses. The 1099 provision, which was included only as a revenue-generating measure, isn’t one of them. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree this provision needs to be fixed, and more than 90 senators have voted to amend this part of the law. Yet it still exists.

It’s time for those preventing the 1099 provision from being corrected to end the political posturing. We urge all senators to look past their partisan differences and support small businesses by fixing this issue immediately.