Welcome to the Business Journal Archives
Search for articles below, or continue to the all new BusinessJournalDaily.com now.
Search
Small-Business Owners to Lobby Congress
PITTSBURGH -- A delegation of 30 small-business owners, all members of SMC Business Councils, will leave tomorrow for a two day grassroots lobbying trip to Washington, D.C. The annual event, organized in conjunction with their national affiliate, the National Small Business Association, is called "The Washington Presentation to Congress.""We want our legislators to know exactly how small-business owners feel," says SMC Chairwoman Lois Riske, president of General Cleaning Inc. "It's important that they know how the laws and regulations they pass impact the way we do business. They will never know unless we tell them, and that's the whole purpose behind the Washington Presentation -- to create a constructive dialogue."Riske feels the rising costs of health care are "both scary and unreal. In this area especially, it's critical that they realize how serious this issue is for all of us."Marilyn Landis, SMC's vice chairman/Government Relationsand president of Basic Business Concepts Inc., agrees. "I hope we can increase the visibility and understanding among our congressional leaders of small-business issues, particularly health care costs and access to capital," she says.SMC members will tell Congress that small-business health-insurance costs have been rising by 10% to 15% per year for a decade. During the last three years, this painful pace has accelerated to more than 20% per year. "This trend will result in the average annual cost of family coverage in 2010 equaling average annual wages," Riske predicts. "If this trend continues, it will significantly influence hiring/layoff decisions as well as force complete cancellation of employee coverage."SMC will offer several recommendations including medical malpractice reform, prohibition on use of individual sex, age and health status by insurers to sell insurance, and acceleration of Medicare pay-for-performance initiatives. In addition, the organization will press for revision of Association Health Plan legislation, she says.The SMC delegation will also discuss the manufacturing sector's problems. "In Pennsylvania, manufacturing accounts for the largest or second-largest fraction of total payroll," Landis points out. "More than 2.5 million American manufacturing jobs have disappeared since 1998, including 120,000 Pennsylvania manufacturing workers. However, America is still the world leader in innovation and technology."To maintain that leadership, SMC members will encourage Congress to enact the JOBS act and parallel House legislation, which would end punitive tariffs on U.S. exports to the European Union. This legislation would also provide badly needed encouragement for small and large companies that manufacture in the United States to invest in new plant and equipment.Lawsuit Abuse will be a third topic under discussion. The costs of out-of-control lawsuit abuse are ubiquitous. The President's Council of Economic Advisers reported two years ago that the U.S. legal system imposed an annual burden of $2,400 on a family of four. "That figure doesn't include the huge penalties from differences between our legal liability laws and those of our major economic competitors," Landis says.SMC will recommend comprehensive tort reform, passage of legislation to ensure federal court jurisdiction for class action lawsuits, enactment of medical malpractice reform, and ending the asbestos litigation nightmare.Small-business owners will also urge Congress and the Bush Administration to keep their promises to repeal the death tax and to provide adequate funding to the U.S. Small Business Administration, the agency that provides small enterprises much-needed access to capital.SMC Business Councils is a nonprofit trade association representing 4,000 small-business owners in western and central Pennsylvania.Visit SMC Business Councils: www.smc.org"