Stand Firm with the Guardians of Small Business on Nov. 6

Posted on September 20, 2012 by

On one side of the Old North Bridge in Concord, Mass. stood a motley collection of patriots whose eagerness, reliability and strength was all that stood between well-armed and trained British regulars who were determined to put an end to a fragile concept called freedom. These “minutemen” were farmers, tradesmen and workers. They were more familiar with plows, printing presses and blacksmith’s bellows than the muskets they kept close at hand.

But they could always be depended on to respond quickly to challenges that tested the young nation. Today, their enduring image stands on many desks in the United States Congress. The Guardian of Small Business statue, carved in the likeness of the classic image of a minuteman, is bestowed by the National Federation of Independent Business upon those Representatives and Senators who display the courage to protect and defend America’s small-business sector. This award is no mere token of gratitude; it must be earned.

Like those brave protectors of freedom from 1775, many congressional lawmakers often face significant odds in their efforts to guide the nation towards a safe and secure future. Their challengers place politics ahead of national interests and view bigger and more intrusive government as the solution to America’s ills.

Guardians Awards

It takes courage and determination to do big things for small business, to stand firm when powerful forces attempt to run roughshod over the hard-working entrepreneurs of Main Street. Those who possess such fortitude never hesitate to cast votes favorable to small-business positions 70 percent or more during each two-year Congress.

In the next few weeks, many contests will be fought across the nation. In the tradition of democracy, the final results will be determined at millions of ballot boxes. NFIB’s PAC, SAFE Trust, is currently issuing its endorsements of candidates who have done and will do big things in Congress. Many of these are Guardians of Small Business who have stood strong for our members and voted for affordable healthcare, sensible regulations and lower taxes. Also, NFIB is supporting many open seat and challenger candidates who have pledged their commitment on these issues as well.

By Nov. 6, make sure you have taken at least five steps to help our endorsed candidates: Get informed about key small-business issues, talk to your family and employees about the importance of this election; volunteer to campaign for NFIB-endorsed candidates, help NFIB in its voter education efforts, and, most importantly, vote on Election Day. For more information, go to nfib.com/politics.

This is one of the most crucial elections small business and our nation, in general, have ever faced. Like the standoff at Old North Bridge, this will be a major turning point in the history of America. We must stand firm to protect and defend our nation’s vital free enterprise system.

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Corbett sees small business as partner in rebuilding Pennsylvania

Posted on September 19, 2012 by

Last week I was privileged to stand with Governor Tom Corbett and state Rep. Tina Pickett and celebrate what most small business-owners thought was only a distant possibility: a regulatory flexibility law for Pennsylvania. 

 In fact, similar legislation sponsored by Rep. Pickett twice made it to the desk of the last governor – only to be vetoed both times. Ironically, in his veto message, former Gov. Ed Rendell said such a law would impose a burden on state regulators who were tasked with writing these rules.

 To which current Governor Corbett asked, “What about the burden being placed on those being regulated?”

 It’s hard to believe but until now, small businesses in Pennsylvania had virtually no voice in the processes of drafting regulations by which they are so deeply affected. In fact, until now, the term “regulatory-flexibility” would have provoked laughter as an oxymoron, like jumbo shrimp. 

 But starting this month, small businesses now have a seat at the rulemaking table.  Why is this new law important? 

 If you ask any small business owner, he or she will tell you that regulatory compliance might be just as frustrating and costly as excessive taxes.  In fact, small-businesses typically spend about 40-percent more to comply with the same regulations as large corporations.

 The new regulatory-flexibility law recognizes the inherent differences between small and large companies and the potential harm caused by one-size-fits-all regulations. The new law will ensure a dialogue between state regulators and the small business community in order to develop sensible regulations that improve compliance, public protection and ensure businesses remain competitive.

 It is also important to remember that the Regulatory Flexibility Act is only one of several important regulatory reforms undertaken by Governor Corbett and lawmakers to streamline and simplify the regulatory process for small businesses to make it a little easier to run and grow a company in Pennsylvania.

 The governor issued an executive order making the regulatory process more transparent. He also signed a new law requiring that proposed regulations be based on peer-reviewed, scientific data. And most recently officials in the Department of Environmental Protection announced a guarantee that decisions on permits by that department would be issued in a timely and predictable fashion.

 Thanks in large part to Governor Corbett’s initiatives the regulatory environment in Pennsylvania is steadily improving.  Small businesses have waited a long time for leaders in Harrisburg who view them as partners in rebuilding the state economy.

 If only the policymakers in Washington, DC, shared the same perspective.

 Unlike the Corbett administration in Pennsylvania which is working diligently to reduce paperwork headaches and red tape; the executive branch in Washington inexplicably just keeps piling on more. 

 Over 4,100 new regulations await action by the federal government with an estimated economic cost of more than a half-trillion dollars!

 More than 1 million Pennsylvania workers could be affected by these rules and experts predict $106 billion of Pennsylvania’s gross state product could be negatively impacted.

 Is this what the economy needs to grow its way out of this recession?  Of course not. 

 But that’s a question that federal regulators never ask. 

 Thankfully, common sense has been the signature of the Corbett administration and the governor and his legislative allies recognize that small employers play an important role in our economic recovery. 

 On behalf of small business owners across Pennsylvania, I would like to thank Governor Corbett for working with NFIB and our allies to make it a little bit easier to start, run and grow a business in Pennsylvania.

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Appeals Court Reviews Labor Board’s Sneak Attack on Small Business

Posted on September 13, 2012 by

As Election Day approaches, small-business owners are beginning to get lots of notice, especially from vote-seeking candidates who express admiration for their ability to create jobs and keep the nation’s economy afloat. But when these hard-working entrepreneurs become the center of attention for federal bureaucrats, it’s time to start worrying.

While many view the small-business sector as vital to America’s recovery, those now running the National Labor Relations Board apparently see small firms as easy targets to help revive the membership ranks of rapidly shrinking labor unions. Recently, the agency sidestepped Congress to issue a legal dictum demanding most small employers prominently display posters that are essentially “how to” manuals for organizing labor unions. The poster idea was advocated by labor interests and designed to instigate disputes, and costly lawsuits, where none existed before.

There’s just one problem with the NLRB’s poster rule: The NLRB lacks the power to require businesses to do anything except what Congress has authorized. It’s a basic Constitutional principle. And Congress never gave NLRB the power to mandate the poster rule.

President Obama’s hand-picked chairman of the agency, a former labor union lawyer, doesn’t seem greatly concerned with Constitutional principles. That’s why the nation’s oldest small-business organization, the National Federation of Independent Business, has challenged NLRB’s poster rule. The case is on appeal in Washington, D.C. this week.

This “Poster Rule” is an arrogant power grab by an agency that the administration has virtually turned over to the bosses of big labor. NFIB’s case argues that NLRB officials may enforce and administer Congressionally-enacted labor law, but they have no authority make laws as they wish. Only Congress can make laws, period.

The NLRB is functioning as a rogue government agency, using taxpayer dollars to inspire labor unrest in small firms. The required posters, the agency hopes, will serve as official government advertisements to encourage employees to organize and engage in collective bargaining.

The renegade bureaucracy has turned a blind eye to the potential damage that such government-sponsored action could inflict on an already discouraged key sector of the nation’s economy. Uncertainty over economic conditions and wayward government policy are among the most severe problems facing Main Street owners today, hindering hiring and stalling any possible economic recovery.

Research by small-business economists draws an unmistakable line between the uncertainty of consumers and the owners of small firms, proving that as long as there is doubt and dismay, economic growth will be slow at best. As one economist noted, when Main Street is uncertain about the future, it freezes.

It doesn’t take a weather expert to confirm that the American free enterprise system is in danger of freezing these days. It has been chilled by years of misguided federal policy, bureaucratic overreach and constant uncertainty.

Small-business owners throughout America’s history have contributed immeasurably to the nation’s growth and stability. They deserve honor and respect, not unconstitutional sneak attacks by bureaucrats who refuse to be guided by the basic tenets of our democracy. If the Appeals Court fails to agree, surely the Supreme Court will.

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NFIB v. NLRB – Round 2 Moves to the Court of Appeals: Appellate Court Receptive to NFIB’s Lawsuit against the Poster Rule

Posted on September 12, 2012 by

Round 2 of NFIB’s lawsuit against the NLRB’s “poster rule” got underway yesterday with arguments in the federal Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. The rule, announced in August 2011, would require business owners to prominently post a notice in the workplace telling employees how to unionize.

After the NRLB issued the notice in 2011, NFIB sued to stop the rule. Besides taking issue with poster’s outrageously pro-union language, NFIB argued in court that the NLRB doesn’t have authority to impose a posting requirement on over six million employers. As a creature of statute, the NLRB can do only what Congress tells it to do. And Congress hasn’t told the NLRB to issue a poster. In March, federal District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that the NLRB had authority to issue the poster rule. NFIB and other employer groups appealed Jackson’s order and asked the federal court of appeals to adopt the opinion of a federal District Court judge in South Carolina who, in another lawsuit, struck down the rule.

During yesterday’s argument, the NLRB apparently conceded that the agency lacks power to impose affirmative obligations on employers unless the employer commits an unfair labor practice. Then,—remarkably—the NLRB made the bold, and unwieldy, claim that failure to inform employees of their rights under labor laws is an unfair labor practice in itself.

In other words, the NLRB believes that the agency can order millions of employers to post information about labor law because federal law currently imposes an affirmative obligation on employers to educate employees about their right to unionize. More outrageous – under the NLRB’s view, employers who fail to inform employees of their rights are today in violation of the National Labor Relations Act. Not surprisingly, this assertion, which would give the NLRB seemingly unlimited power, met skepticism from the judges.

The NLRB contends that changing workforce demographics justify the poster rule. In the agency’s words, because there is a higher percentage of non-English speaking workers and lower percentage of union members, workers don’t know their NLRA rights. Such an assumption is dubious in the Internet age. And the agency conducted no empirical study to back up its assertion that a (biased, one-sided) poster in the break room will increase awareness of NLRA rights. In other words, the NLRB hasn’t shown the rule is necessary, a requirement for federal rulemaking (this is assuming the agency had authority to issue a poster rule, which it doesn’t).

The bottom line is that yesterday’s argument failed to demonstrate why the NLRB has authority to compel business owners to display these posters. Moreover, there is something dubious about the agency’s suggestion that it should have free reign to decide the scope of its own jurisdiction. To be sure, there is nothing stopping the NLRB from imposing further burdens on employers if it gets away with this. Perhaps next it will require employers to pay employees to attend labor training, or file annual reports on labor issues, or to allow union activists on to their property to lecture employees on labor issues. If we throw away the statutory limitations on the agency’s powers, then anything goes.

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Small Business Grades New York Lawmakers 2011-12 Performance

Posted on September 12, 2012 by

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), New York’s leading small business advocacy organization, released its 2011-2012 Legislative Voting Record today.  The Voting Record identifies the top issues for New York small business owners, tracks the votes of every legislator and calculates a score on a scale of 100.  The Voting Record is a tool that lets voters measure the rhetorical support that lawmakers often give to small business against their actual voting record.  It is also is a key component in NFIB’s decision to endorse incumbent legislators.

“What’s encouraging about this year’s Voting Record is that it shows a sustained commitment by the Senate Majority and the Assembly Minority to reduce business costs, reduce taxes and improve New York’s economy for small businesses,” said Mike Durant, NFIB New York State Director.

Durant pointed to several legislative accomplishments as proof that things have gradually improved in Albany.

“There has been progress over the past two years, from the property tax cap to pension reform, but a tremendous amount of work remains,” he said.  “I applaud those lawmakers that have scored well this cycle.  Their commitment to New York’s small businesses is commendable and as Election Day comes and goes, I would urge them to maintain the focus on reducing New York’s high cost of doing business.”

The Voting Record examines seven key bills in the Assembly and Senate.  They were among the more than one hundred pieces of legislation monitored by NFIB.  All lawmakers are listed in the Voting Record, but it should be noted that in order to receive credit for the score, legislators must have recorded a vote for a majority of the legislation identified in the Voting Record.  In order to receive a passing grade from NFIB, a lawmaker must have scored at least a 70 percent.

The Senate Majority is led by 11 Senators that scored a perfect 100 percent, including freshman Senator’s Lee Zeldin and Patrick Gallivan. In the Assembly, numerous members of the Minority Conference scored 86 percent.  Assemblyman Robin Schimminger recorded the highest score in the Assembly Majority, also with an 86 percent.

Check to see if your representatives in Albany are receptive to the needs of small business owners! Check out the NFIB-NY 2012 Voting Record!

For more information about NFIB, please visit www.nfib.com/newyork.

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The “Fiscal Cliff” Should Have Never Been a Possibility

Posted on September 6, 2012 by

Hard work, long hours. That’s reality for America’s small-business owners. You know what it takes, and you know who built your business.

You also know that time is one of your most valuable assets. You don’t get second chances.

Between now and Dec. 31, except for important holidays, family events and religious observances, you’ll take advantage of every opportunity during those 100-plus days to build and sustain your Main Street firm.

Congress, however, has only about 30 official work days scheduled before the end of the year. Much of that time will be lost due to the inefficient machinery that politicians have built into the business of legislating.

The most important thing that both you and Congress can do in these next few weeks is keep the date Dec. 31 in sharp focus. If lawmakers fail to act responsibly and extend a number of important tax provisions that will have a direct impact on your business, America—not just small business—will sail off the so-called “Fiscal Cliff.” Awaiting you at the bottom is an almost $500 billion tax increase.

For the 75 percent of you who pay your taxes as individuals, your rates will skyrocket. For those of you who want to pass your businesses on to family members, estate tax exemption levels will rise and rates will leap 20 percentage points.

And there’s plenty more to worry about if this deadline passes without favorable action on Capitol Hill: Section 179 expensing limits will plummet to $25,000 while the so-called “built-in gains” holding period for S corporation assets will increase to ten years, and about 23 million additional taxpayers will be hit with the alternative minimum tax.

No matter what you’re doing at this moment, stop and mark your calendars with three important dates. First, today: call, visit AND write your senators and members of Congress. Urge them to keep your business and our nation from going over the cliff.

Second, Nov. 6, Election Day: go to the polls and vote for those who care about small business and free enterprise. Encourage as many family members, employees and friends to do the same.

Third, Dec. 31: when this day arrives, give yourself a pat on the back for making every effort possible during the previous 100-plus days to prevent this financial disaster from happening.

The Fiscal Cliff should have never been a possibility in the first place. Our nation cannot sustain such irresponsible tinkering with its financial structure. As a small-business owner, you understand the importance of balancing your budget, spending no more than you take in, and putting any assets you gain back into your enterprise to make it successful.

Now is the time to demand that your legislators learn to do the same. Like its small-business foundation, time is also one of America’s most valuable assets. Neither should be squandered for the sake of political gain.

Do it now. Tell Congress to give small-business owners greater tax certainty. You’ll take America’s recovery from there.

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Fending-Off Regulatory Overreach in the Supreme Court: In Defense of Economic Liberty

Posted on September 5, 2012 by

As small business owners know all too well, federal agencies are stepping up their enforcement activities all across the country. Over the past few years we have seen agencies taking increasingly aggressive positions to extend their regulatory reach, and all too often in entirely unfounded ways. This trend is of great concern for small business owners, and reigning in rouge agencies remains a top priority of the NFIB Legal Center. Unfortunately, government bureaucrats are not the only one’s taking cavalier legal positions these days.

We are also working to defend small business against opportunistic and ideologically motivated litigants who seek to bring baseless claims. These litigants can be just as aggressive as federal regulators in calling upon the courts to impose regulatory restrictions on reasonable—and entirely legal—business practices. Though we all recognize the importance of complying with the law, we are fighting against unfounded lawsuits which seek to impose greater regulatory burdens, and to create new liabilities, for employers. Whether the lawsuit is initiated by Big Labor, radical environmentalists or overly zealous regulators, we are taking an unflinching stand against regulatory abuse.

In our latest filing in the U.S. Supreme Court, we addressed the issue of regulatory overreach in a brief in support of businesses in the timber industry. We filed a “friend of the court” brief this week in Georgia-Pacific West v. NEDC, a case in which environmental organizations challenged a long-standing regulation which allows timber businesses to use and maintain forest roads without obtaining a costly Clean Water Act permit. Despite the fact that Oregon law allows timber businesses to use and maintain these roads without obtaining any such permit, the environmentalists argued that timber businesses should be required to obtain a federal permit under the Clean Water Act because stormwater runoff from forest roads will eventually find its way into creeks and rivers. The only problem with that argument is that the Clean Water Act doesn’t say that permits are required in this situation.

The Clean Water Act is simply ambiguous. Indeed, it is unclear whether Congress intended to require timber companies to obtain permits in cases like this. Moreover, states like Oregon have already established policies governing timber harvesting activities which adequately address local environmental concerns.

In our brief, we argued that it would be unreasonable to interpret an ambiguous provision in a federal statute as taking away our economic liberties. As we argued to the Court, the Constitution presumes that citizens are at liberty. For this reason, neither government regulators nor ideological groups should get away with rewriting ambiguous statutes to extend the reach of federal regulations. If our arguments are accepted, small business owners will be in a better position to defend against regulatory overreach when legal disputes arise. Whether dealing with a tax issue, property rights, labor disputes or any regulatory matter, we argue that the constitutional presumption of liberty protects small business and the right of free enterprise.

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Mr. President: the tinkerers, dreamers and small-business owners built America.

Posted on September 4, 2012 by

President Obama was asked in a recent interview what mistakes he made in his first term.  His response was revealing. He said that while he has no doubts about his policies, he should have done a better job of “telling a story.”

It’s not that the Stimulus was a trillion-dollar flop. It’s not that his health care reform is a mudslide of new taxes and regulations that is paralyzing employers.  It’s not that his energy policies have choked off American production

Nope.

The President’s only mistake is having failed to tell us a story.  A story!  I guess because charts and statistics and facts are too confusing.

Here’s a story for the President:

Once upon a time there was a great nation, unique in the history of mankind because of its faith in free people to govern themselves and because of its institutional hostility to government. Its fathers rebelled against the mightiest military power on Earth and won their Independence.

Here in Pennsylvania they conceived and debated and perfected a governing system, radical for its time and still the boldest political experiment ever undertaken, based on liberty and self determination.

Freedom, in other words, would be the organizing principle. Central to that freedom according to the founders was the freedom to prosper.  Americans would be distinguished, therefore, not on the basis of heredity or nobility or cast, but on the basis of their individual merit.

They would choose their own occupation and rise as high as their native abilities would take them.  And rise they did.

Who better than our own Benjamin Franklin exemplifies this? From apprentice to printer to publisher to inventor to philanthropist to international diplomat.  From the middling class, as he called it, came the country’s intellectual vigor, its ambition, its moral core and its economic strength.

It wasn’t the unions that created the middle class, as the President often suggests.  It was the tinkerers and dreamers who built the small businesses that became large companies that hired the workers that formed the unions.

And it most certainly wasn’t the government, as he argued last week in his now infamous “You Didn’t Build That” speech.

What an utterly preposterous notion:  The idea that your success as a business person is owed not to your hard work or investment or imagination or perseverance or the wisdom that you gained from successive failures.  Rather, it is owed to the politicians and bureaucrats and regulators whose existence you make possible.

That speech, I am convinced, will be identified by historians as the most consequential speech of his first term as President.  Not because of its poetry or weight, but because of its clumsy honesty.

The idea that government is at the center of America’s success can only be held by someone who has never lived a day in the private sector — never had to live with the government he loves.

President Obama doesn’t understand the economy because to him, the government is the economy.

Mr. President, the tinkerers and dreamers and small-business owners built America.

Everything that has ever moved us forward — every cure, every invention, every improvement in the human condition — is the product of a free economy powered by free people. Built by them too are the roads and bridges and schools and every other public accommodation that makes better the lives of Americans.

These businesses are struggling under the threat of a behemoth federal bureaucratic regulatory tidal wave that grows larger every day. Election Day 2012 actually may determine whether that tidal wave of more than 4,100 new federal regulations washes over the American economy.

With an estimated cost of more than half a trillion dollars, the threat of Obama’s Regulatory Tidal Wave already has impacted small businesses across America. New business formation is at a 25 year low.  And 50-percent of the businesses that are not hiring have cited the cost of government regulation as the reason they will not hang job opening signs in their store windows.

In Pennsylvania, Over 1 million people who work in Pennsylvania’s major industries could be impacted by this tidal wave of regulations, at a cost of over $106 billion of Pennsylvania’s gross state product. That’s in addition to the half million Pennsylvanians that already are unemployed and 94,000 manufacturing jobs that have been lost since 2007.

The NFIB has launched a campaign to stop the tidal wave of federal regulations from crashing onto small business owners and washing out millions of American jobs.

http://www.stopthetidalwave.org

We need to fight for smarter regulations that protect the environment, workers, and American jobs and stop this looming regulatory tidal wave before it does irreversible damage to our economy.

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Small Business Headlines – Labor Day Edition

Posted on September 3, 2012 by

One convention down, another starts up today…and with it comes Labor Day, the traditional starting point of election season for many voters.

The news has primarily been on the Presidential race as Governor Romney and surrogates highlighted America’s entrepreneurial spirit and laid out their vision for our country.  Starting today, President Obama and his supporters will try to do the same.  Governor O’Malley of Maryland stumbled right out of the gate yesterday.

Governor Cuomo is keeping a very low profile at the DNC.

The start of the DNC in Charlotte means, for New York’s Democratic delegation, Speaker Silver and the Assemblyman Lopez scandal will generate significant buzz.  The Auburn Citizen has called on the Speaker to resign his post.

There has been little in terms of small business news the last few days, but one item of note is another call by the New York Post for Governor Cuomo to reconsider his rather cemented position on the potential closure of the Indian Point nuclear facility.

 

 

 

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Help Shape Our Nation – Engage with NFIB’s Social Media!

Posted on August 28, 2012 by

As the Republican National Convention began in earnest today, and a theme of small business and celebration of America’s entrepreneurial spirit prevalent in today’s proceedings, I thought it would be a perfect moment to highlight some of the many ways you can be part of the NFIB discussion, advocacy and join a chorus of thousands of small business owners from across our great nation.

Our country’s political process is second to none, and the next two weeks will highlight two visions for our country that is truly at a crossroads.  I believe the overarching theme of this election season, at every level of government, will be the development and bolstering of a private sector economy or an expansion of a public sector economy.  What direction will our nation go?  That is up to all of us.

The best voter is the well informed voter.  And what greater tool for elected officials, organizations and the press to use than social media.  Social media allows many that are typically shut out of the public discourse to be involved.  It allows people to be informed in real time.  It has truly heightened the 24 hour news cycle and expanded our ability to receive and decipher information quickly.

For NFIB, this has led us to adapt to the newest and emerging means to communicate with our members and have an impact on the debate on the future of our country.  From the development of this blog, to Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/NFIB) and twitter (@mpdurant and @NFIB) there are many ways to encourage all of you to join the discussion.

Recently, NFIB has welcomed a new platform to reach out to small business owners.  Text messaging!

Our text message program will provide members with a quick note to let them know there is a call to action. By electing to register for NFIB’s text message service, members will be able to receive updates on their smart phone. It could be a request to sign a letter or an invitation to attend a hearing in their area.

NFIB will be reserving the use of this service for when the time is right and the cause is just. We will be sending relevant alerts and information when appropriate. We hope members and followers of NFIB will join in this new endeavor which will help to keep our voice heard loud and clear on the issues that matter to independent businesses across both New York and the nation.

To stay up-to-date on small business issues and have legislative alerts delivered directly to your mobile device, text NFIB to 64274.

I encourage those that want to be informed and help shape the future of our nation to sign up!  And to follow @NFIB or myself at @mpdurant this election season.  For those watching the convention proceedings, follow #Big4SmallBiz !

The collective voice of many truly has an impact – be informed and be active!

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