President Barack Obama's highly anticipated small business plan does not fully help what is hurting small businesses, according to an advocacy organization representing entrepreneurs. The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council) is urging the administration to back away from raising taxes on small firms and pull its most egregious regulatory proposals off the table. Sending a signal to small business owners that the government will not take away any more of their resources, precious capital and time will help create certainty and stability for entrepreneurs and the broader economy says the group.
"While the lending measures may help on the margins, entrepreneurs would feel much more confident and appreciated if their political leaders in Washington were not proposing assorted measures to increase their taxes and restrict operations through costly regulations," said SBE Council President & CEO Karen Kerrigan.
The President is proposing a series of measures aimed at increasing small business lending through the Small Business Administration. These include cutting and eliminating loan fees and increasing the federal government guarantee on loans. While these may help some small businesses that are in a position to borrow money, many small firms are not in sound financial shape or don't feel it is prudent to increase their debt during the rough economic period. That is why political leaders need to focus on policies that allow small firms to survive and self-finance with their own resources -- namely by not absconding more of their capital through tax hikes as the Administration proposes in its budget.
"Rather than fiddling with various government programs, the Obama administration would accomplish much more in terms of boosting confidence and getting the economy moving by, at the very least, moving away from imposing higher personal income, capital gains, dividend and estate taxes on investors and business owners, not to mention increased energy costs through a cap-and-trade regulatory scheme," added Chief Economist Raymond Keating.
Raymond J. Keating
Chief Economist
Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council
No comments:
Post a Comment