Workforce development a concern for small business owners.
Iowa lawmakers agreed this June on a state spending plan of about $7.3 billion for the fiscal year that started July 1, including $7.17 billion in ongoing spending, plus $125 million in one-time expenses. The biggest sticking point of the legislative season was diverting funds to education, which could inadvertently hurt small business, says NFIB/Iowa State Director Kristin Failor.
“We had an issue with education and the funding for education,” Failor said. “They were stripping it from other places, but whenever you’re ‘shell-gaming’ funds like that, I think the economy seems to be the detriment.”
Education saw a $6.1 million increase in funding from 2015 to 2016. Health and human services saw the biggest cut, dropping $19 million in funding, while economic development dropped $331,000.
“When you’re taking from one place to fill another, because you want to address bigger issues, whether that be unions or school districts or whatever the major issues are, I think that ultimately hurts us,” Failor said.
Workforce development is a critical issue for small business owners, Failor says. As more and more baby boomers are retiring, certain jobs are becoming very hard to fill.
“We have this enormous gap of business owners who can’t fill jobs because there is nobody out there,” Failor said. “The state touts their workforce development, and the unemployment rate is only at 4.5 percent, but I think when they start shifting money, they kind of use that as a hide-behind and say, ‘Well we don’t need to put any tax money into helping get these people out into the workforce.’”
