DENVER, Colo., March 11, 2015—Tony Gagliardi, Colorado state director for America’s largest small-business association, will testify this afternoon in favor of House Bill 1205, when it comes up for a hearing in the House Finance Committee at 1:30 p.m.
“It’s extremely rare when we support the creation of a new legislative committee, but this potential one could give us some badly needed facts for a whole lot of possibly wrong assumptions about the importance of tax breaks as a stimulus for job creation,” said Gagliardi, whose National Federation of Independent Business has 350,000 members nationwide, including more than 7,000 in Colorado.
“I expect our position to pit us against some of our sister business associations, and no doubt uncork – however wrongly — the David versus Goliath metaphor, but the vast majority of small-business owners, who create almost all the new jobs in Colorado, receive no tax breaks. Big businesses and large corporations are the almost exclusive beneficiaries of them. And the important thing to remember is the cost of government never declines, so if you’re giving free passes to some businesses on contributing revenues to operate government, you’re placing more of a financial burden on those already paying without any tax breaks.”
The measure by Reps. K.C. Becker and Lori Saine has no Senate sponsors at the moment. “Small businesses are the engine of every economy,” said Gagliardi, “and we’ve always said that the best climates for those small businesses to prosper in are in places with low, fair – and equitable! – tax environments. If businesses receiving preferential treatments are indeed creating the jobs that warrant them, then let’s continue them. But we don’t know that until we find out, which is what HB 1205 would do and why we support it.”
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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/Colorado
1580 Logan St. Suite 520
Denver, CO 80203
303-831-6099
Twitter: @NFIB_CO
