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Small Business Bill of Rights (H.Res. 22), authored by U.S. Representative Ric Keller of Florida, cleared the House of Representatives last week.
According to the congressman’s Web site, the Small Business Bill of Rights serves as a blueprint for action for helping small businesses in the 109th Congress. The bill addresses seven key areas:
- Reducing health insurance costs through association health plans
- Ending frivolous lawsuits
- Red tape relief
- Death tax relief
- Reducing energy costs
- Increasing access to capital
- Opening access to government contracts.
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THE SMALL BUSINESS BILL OF RIGHTS |
1. The right to join together to purchase affordable insurance for small business employees, who make up a large portion of the millions of Americans without health care coverage. 2. The right to simplified tax laws that allow family-owned small businesses to survive over several generations and offer them incentives to grow. 3. The right to be free from frivolous lawsuits, which harm law-abiding small businesses and prevent them from creating new jobs. 4. The right to be free of unnecessary, restrictive regulations and paperwork, which waste the time and energy of small businesses, while hurting production and preventing job creation. 5. The right to relief from high energy costs, which post a real threat to the survival of small businesses, to be accomplished by reducing the nation’s reliance on imported sources of energy and encouraging environmentally-sound domestic production and conservation of energy. 6. The right to equal treatment, as compared to large businesses, when seeking access to start-up and expansion capital and credit. 7. The right to open access to the government procurement marketplace through the breaking up of large contrcts to give small business owners a fair opportunity to compete for federal contracts. Source: keller.house.gov |
"Significantly, 70 percent of all new jobs created in the United States are created by small businesses and small business employers are the engine that drives this economy," Keller says. "A job is the best social program in the world. It provides income, health insurance, and dignity."
A recent article on Inc.com noted that the Small Business Bill of Rights is meant to serve as a blueprint to guide Congress's agenda. Inc.com cited Bryan Malenius, a spokesperson for Congressman Keller.
"The Bill of Rights is like the 1994 Republican Contract with America--simply a list of things to accomplish during the term," said Malenius, adding that Congressman Keller consulted 20 small business owners in Orlando before drafting the resolution. During the focus group, the most pressing problem facing all of the businesses were soaring health care costs.
According to the Lawn & Landscape 2004 State of the Industry Report, green industry contractors’ concerns about health insurance have increased over time. In 1997, insurance concers ranked No 8 on a list of 10 business issues, but rose to No. 4 last year in relation to health insurance. Concerns over workers’ compensation insurance came in at No. 2. As a result of higher health insurance costs in particular, many companies have had to eliminate this employee benefit or increase the percecnt fo the cost covered by the employee.
To offset the rising cost of health care, the green industry and many other small-business-driven industries are lobbying for leigslation that would create association health plans (AHPs), whereby companies belonging to industry organization could band together when purchasing insurance and receive similar volume benefits as large corporations.
What do you think of the proposed Small Business Bill of Rights? Visit the Lawn & Landscape Online Message Board to share your thoughts, or e-mail Lauren Spiers at lspiers@gie.net.