CARSON CTY, Nev., May 23, 2016—By big margins, Silver State small-business owners want a repeal of the commerce tax, the right to contract directly with physicians, don’t think a law is needed on workplace bullying, and are adamantly against predictive scheduling. They are divided on the issue of training wages, according to results released today from the National Federation of Independent Business, the Voice of Small Business.
Every year NFIB, America’s largest and leading small-business association, polls its members on state and national issues vital to their ability to own, operate and grow their enterprises. Results from the poll center NFIB’s lobbying positions in Washington, D.C. and in Carson City. NFIB has 350,000 dues-paying members nationwide, including nearly 2,000 in Nevada. Results from the NFIB-member ballots are released after a statistically valid sample is reached. The 2016 ballot asked five questions.
When asked if the Nevada Legislature should repeal the commerce tax it created in 2015, 87 percent of small-business owners said ‘Yes,’ 5 percent voted ‘No,’ and 8 percent were undecided.
“They are frustrated that the Legislature passed a tax on gross revenues of a business, just a few months after Nevada voters overwhelmingly rejected a similar proposal, Question 3, at the ballot box,” said Randi Thompson, NFIB’s Nevada state director. “It’s not fair to tax a business that doesn’t make a profit. Even though many of these business owners don’t have to pay the tax right now, because they don’t meet the $4 million revenue threshold, they still have to do the paperwork that essentially requires them to keep a second set of books.’”
The widest margin in the poll came from the question on whether the state should require employers to give their employees work schedules two weeks in advance and require them to give ‘predictability pay’ if a shift is changed or canceled within such a two-week period. Nearly all, 94 percent, NFIB-member small-business owners responding to the survey voted ‘No,’ only 1 percent said ‘Yes,’ and the remaining 5 percent were undecided.
In the answers to the remaining three questions, almost 80 percent of employers would oppose legislation that would enact anti-bullying provisions in the workplace (12 percent would support legislation, 8 percent were undecided), and 82 percent said that Nevadans should be able to contract directly with private physicians for primary care and preventive services (4 percent were opposed and 14 percent were undecided).
Respondents were mixed on creating a ‘training’ wage for new workers, as an alternative to the minimum-wage requirement, with 44 percent supporting it, 41 percent opposing, and 15 percent undecided. All full ballot questions, along with their pros and cons, can be read here.
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For more than 70 years, the National Federation of Independent Business has been the Voice of Small Business, taking the message from Main Street to the halls of Congress and all 50 state legislatures. NFIB annually surveys its members on state and federal issues vital to their survival as America’s economic engine and biggest creator of jobs. NFIB’s educational mission is to remind policymakers that small businesses are not smaller versions of bigger businesses; they have very different challenges and priorities.
National Federation of Independent Business/Nevada
140 Washington St. #150
Reno, NV 89503
775-830-8407
Twitter: @NFIB_NV
