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Use our grassroots tool to see how your member of Congress voted on H.R. 3962 and call them today.
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Watch our latest video with Dr. Bob Graboyes discussing the benefits of comparative shopping and health insurance.
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The employer mandate and public health insurance option continue to drive the Congressional debate over healthcare reform.
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Watch our reaction to the president's initiative to give small businesses more access to credit.
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Weighing the benefits of reform against the potential new costs.
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NFIB members describe how H.R. 2454 will devastate small businesses by increasing energy costs by 40 percent.
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Cap-and-trade could raise your electricity bill by 40%. Download our PDF and spread the word about what Congress doesn't want you to know.
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Massachusetts is already a high-cost state for employers with energy costs, development costs, taxes, unemployment insurance costs, health insurance premiums, and employee salary and benefit costs at or near the highest in the nation. Massachusetts employers are currently implementing the state’s health insurance reform experiment where costs have increased 45% during the three years since implementation in 2006 for small employers and their workers with more costly regulations and mandates pending.
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Contact your Members of Congress and urge them to oppose card check agreements and the union’s blatant political agenda.
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Be a part of an online community and help stop labor’s political agenda that threatens small business and harms our economic competitiveness.
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Watch Senior Healthcare Advisor Robert Graboyes discuss the impact of mandated employer-provided insurance. The first in our new video series.
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You still have time to get active in the healthcare debate. Voice your opposition to H.R. 3200 before your lawmakers head back to DC.
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We’re urging the Senate to oppose climate change legislation that will raise energy costs for small business.
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The 111th Congress has been active on several agricultural and rural policy matters, particularly those relevant to small family farms. We firmly believe that the government can balance the needs of public safety with an appropriate level of regulation placed on small farms and food producers.
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Read about recent opinion polls that show Americans want more immediate and meaningful reforms for economic recovery.
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No state in the nation is out of the woods yet in grappling with its bear of a budget deficit lurking within, and Nevada is no different. The panic button of higher taxes and fees is the only one most legislators know how to push, regardless of party affiliation or ideology. The only thing that works is the persuasion of well-reasoned argument. The sales tax and fee increases the legislature passed in 2009 were a train speeding down the tracks that we, often working alone, could not stop. But we did win a two-year expiration on some of the tax increases and enactment of some reining in of state public employee pension system costs. We will redouble our efforts to prevent any further increases when the legislature meets again in 2011.
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As a condition of accepting Uncle Sam’s $286 million in federal stimulus money, the Legislature had to change the state’s unemployment insurance laws to expand eligibility and benefits for certain workers to the tune of $77 million. Gov. Jim Gibbons was rightly hesitant about accepting this $77 million dollars, because he feared that once the stimulus dollars are exhausted, Nevada would be forced to either reduce benefits to pre-stimulus levels or raise taxes on employers to cover the expanded benefits. Some lawmakers shared the governor’s concern, but in the end decided to accept the federal money, as the state's unemployment trust fund could be wiped out by the end of 2009. We are working to make sure that UI tax rates don’t spike on small business owners, once Washington’s money is gone.
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Legislators fail to grasp the cruel irony they perpetrate when ordering health insurers to add another medical condition in their basic plans before they can be legally sold in Nevada: It does those without health insurance not a bit of good. Each new mandate increases the cost of premiums, pushing it farther out of the financial reach of small business without healthcare and forcing those with it to consider dropping coverage altogether. This explains why less than half of small businesses in America can afford to provide health care. Nevada has 52 requirements on health plans. Neighboring Idaho has only 15. Until insurers are legally allowed to tailor each plan to fit the needs of the customer, instead of operate in a legal straightjacket, We will continue to oppose all new healthcare mandates.
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If the 2009 session was any indication, the New Mexico Legislature is in a taxing mood, and whether or not the governor will veto any more bills calling for increases depends solely on the state of the economy. Lobbyists representing recipients of state money put an incredible amount of press on politicians to keep up current funding rather than look for ways to save. We will continue to be a voice for the state to manage what money it takes in better.
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We finally succeeded in getting regulatory reform passed out of the legislature, only to see it vetoed by the governor, in the biggest disappointment for small business in 2009. Had House Bill 502 become law, it would have required the governor and his cabinet secretaries to review the number and effectiveness of the hundreds of boards, commissions, committees, and task forces every 10 years. This has been a signature issue of ours for the past two legislative sessions, because these extraneous governmental bodies often do nothing more than erect paperwork barriers for small business owners. We will resurrect this legislation in 2010.
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Instead of a government-run healthcare system, several legislators have sponsored bills to give businesses tax credits and financial incentives for the purpose of provide their employees with healthcare. We would prefer this to carrot-and-stick approach to the mandated ones.
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Some advocates for raising workers’ compensation premiums argue that the state needs to replenish the Wyoming workers’ compensation fund because it lost $100 million. But that amount represents only a tenth of its billion-dollar reserve. We will remind lawmakers that is what a reserve is for, and that any increase would be unjustified and counterproductive to a healthy economy.
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In the last session of the Wyoming Legislature, attempts were made to include mental health benefits under workers’ compensation coverage. The workers’ compensation system has historically been one that covers physical injuries sustained on the job. Adding a difficult-to-measure mental health component would open the system up to long and costly trials, which serve no one but lawyers fishing for a little income. We will oppose all efforts expand coverage under the workers’ compensation system.
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The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council ranks Wyoming the third best state in the nation for small business survival. The Pacific Research Institute ranks Wyoming fifth in its U.S. Economic Freedom Index. While these rankings are commendable, the Fraser Institute only gave Wyoming a 27, and the Tax Foundation a 35 ranking in the number of days a year a citizen works just to pay taxes. (95 days in Wyoming; 120 days in No. 1 Connecticut). We will continue our opposition to any and all tax increases in the next session. Low taxes mean more prosperity for everybody, which leads to all the revenue government needs to do its job.
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Challenges facing NFIB/Arkansas
Fight to protect property owners’ rights
In our state ballot, members expressed that a major concern was eminent domain and the importance of protecting property owners’ rights. There was legislation introduced to preserve those rights, Senate Bill 69, and while it was passed out of the Senate, it may have been a little far reaching and stalled in the House Judiciary committee.
Protect the limitations established in the Arkansas Tort Reform Act
The 2003 Arkansas Tort Reform Act established financial limits on the damages that could be placed on businesses. We will fight against any proposal to eliminate those limitations. The frequency and high cost of litigation in our country's current civil-justice system is a matter of growing concern to small businesses. Liability reform would inject a measure of fairness into a legal system that currently preys on business, often without regard to legal merit. Liability reform also would help reduce the number of frivolous lawsuits and the exorbitant costs that can drive businesses to financial ruin. We support legal reform that will cap punitive damages at reasonable levels so that small businesses are neither destroyed nor forced to settle out of court under the threat of outrageous punitive damages.
Support a proposal to make health coverage more affordable through group insurance plans
Access to affordable health insurance is the No. 1 issue facing small businesses. As healthcare costs go through the roof, small business owners have very few choices when selecting insurance coverage for their employees. The tipping point is here, and small businesses are begging for solutions to rising healthcare costs, lack of access and other issues. We will support initiatives that would allow small business owners to form group insurance plans and leverage resources to purchase insurance at greatly discounted rates
Oppose unreasonable new environmental regulations
The Audubon Society and Sierra Club have asked the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission to make carbon dioxide an air pollutant. If this regulation passes, it will require any small business owner who owns a building that emits 25 tons of carbon dioxide a year to get an air permit. This will be an expensive proposition that will require Arkansas firms to unnecessarily spend thousands of dollars just to determine whether they produce enough carbon dioxide to require a permit.
Pass additional tax reforms
We supported other tax bills that would have created a back to school sales tax holiday, eliminated the capital gains tax for gains reinvested in Arkansas, and allowed net operating losses to be carried forward for 20 years.
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We will make sure the structural changes of the Workforce Safety and Insurance agency do not translate into higher premiums. It will work to prevent a trend sweeping state legislatures across the nation from happening here. That trend was started by the lawyer lobby, pushing for more and more coverage, such as mental health, to be included in the traditional workers’ compensation system – just to make money for them.
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With legislative passage of Senate Bill 3, productivity was adopted as the method for valuing agricultural land. This standard uses yields and prices as the method for determining taxable value. A major concern for small business is the impact declining agricultural values will have on urban taxpayers and commercial taxes. Monitoring the new method will be one of our highest priorities.
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As a result of the increased number of unemployed South Dakotans due to the economy, the state's unemployment insurance trust fund will fall below the $11 million mark that triggers a surcharge on employers. This surcharge of .09 percent will take effect for the first quarter of 2010, and by the second quarter, the surcharge will hit the maximum 1.5 percent. This surcharge would last throughout 2010 and only be removed when the balance of the fund exceeds $11 million. We are fighting against any further surcharges should legislators panic and want to raise the maximum above 1.5 percent.
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Tell Congress that you can't afford healthcare reform that will punish wage and job growth.
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The larger the pool of premium payers, the more negotiating clout that pool has to reduce costs. It is that simple. Yet state laws erect barriers to this natural flow of problem to solution. We will continue the dual drive to allow for the pooling of small groups, while at the same time fighting any new proposal to add another mandate to existing plans, which do nothing but drive up costs and put health insurance further out of reach for small business owners.
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We will continue to advocate for property tax relief. Current proposals allow for cities and counties to assess new taxes and we will oppose those efforts. Iowa has the fourth-highest commercial property tax rates in the nation and that needs to be addressed.
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Studies by NFIB show health care costs continue to be a critical problem for Wisconsin small business owners and their employers. As a result, many small employers no longer can afford to provide a health insurance benefit, and thousands more have been forced to make dramatic reductions in coverage.
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What if Idaho’s budget deficit does not substantially shrink by the time lawmakers reconvene in 2010? Calls for income tax and fee increases will come from all quarters. The cries from lobbyists for education, law enforcement, the elderly, and the poor will be too shrill for any politician, regardless of party or ideology, to easily ignore. We will continue to remind legislators that revenues come from vibrant economies that are lightly taxed, not burdened with increased levies, and that state government still has not done all it can to save money by reducing waste, fraud, and abuse.
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Last session, we joined other groups to defeat House Bill 1390, which, if it had become law, would have repealed the state’s $500,000 cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases. This would have resulted directly in health-insurance premium increases and in time, a doctor shortage. Proponents expect to try again next session, and we will be there again to fight it.
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Passage of House Bill 1076 changed unemployment-eligibility rules to include any wages paid during the current quarter. This change, which proponents attributed to the ability of computers to provide the latest information in real time, will add $700,000 a year to benefits paid out, an increase of approximately 5 percent over current benefits paid. The change qualified South Dakota for $5.9 million dollars in federal stimulus money. We are working to making small business owners are not hit up for even more unemployment taxes when the federal stimulus money dries up.
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According to the Washington D.C. based Tax Foundation, if Minnesota were a country it would have the third highest business taxes in the world. Most small business owners pay their taxes on the individual income tax. For joint filers making more than $250,000 and single filers making more than $141,000, a new 9 percent tax rate was proposed that would give Minnesota the third-highest individual income tax rate in the nation. This measure that was strongly opposed by NFIB passed the legislature but was vetoed by Governor Pawlenty and will likely be considered again. NFIB has also opposed several efforts to raise the statewide portion of the commercial property tax and this proposal will likely be reintroduced again.
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We succeeded in stopping a prevailing wage law this year, but only after persuading the governor to veto the legislation. This long-held goal of Big Labor will be back for a return engagement in 2010. We will re-double our effort to kill it in the committee stage, before it reaches the governor’s desk. Prevailing wages shut small business out of the competition for public works contracts and drive up public construction costs, especially in rural areas, meaning more tax dollars would be needed to pay for projects.
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Last year, the General Assembly passed a bill out of committee that would have changed Iowa’s 90-year-old law allowing employers the right to choose the physician when a worker is injured. Should this law be changed, the National Council on Compensation Insurance estimates that workers’ compensation rates will increase by more than 14 percent, perhaps as high as 25 percent.
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A single lawsuit can be a financial disaster for small business owners who often cannot afford a costly extended trial. Although we have been successful winning passage of key legal reforms that have helped reduce the number of personal injury and property damage claims, we continue to work for greater predictability, fairness, and a less costly civil justice system in Wisconsin.
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The easiest panic button for politicians to hit when economies are down is to increase the sales tax. But taxes on consumption only reduce purchases and commensurately tamp down revenues. So legislators across the country, couching it in terms of fairness, are promoting keeping sales taxes just as they are, only extending them to include services. Our members are vehemently opposed to this, and we will re-double our efforts to kill any proposal for doing so in its earliest committee stages.
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House Bill 1092 would have taken provisions of the newly amended federal Americans with Disabilities Act, which applies only to employers of more than 15 people, and would have made it mandatory on employers with as few as one employee. We jioned other groups to remind lawmakers of the incredible cost that would have been borne by small business owners and in the end, helped kill the proposal. But it's expected to crop up again next session.
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New health insurance mandates drive up premium costs which fall only on small businesses and individuals who make up just 27 percent of the insured population in Minnesota.
Minnesota has approximately 64 mandated health insurance coverages, the highest in the nation. NFIB will continue to oppose new mandates that only apply to a minority of the insurance market that is made up of small businesses and individuals.
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House Bill 1210 would have required any employer of 15 or more employees to provide paid sick leave. In spite of the fact that almost all small business owners accommodate employees’ leave request, some legislators are looking to make it law, driving up labor costs at a time when the focus should be on job creation. Fortunately, the bill’s sponsor withdrew HB 1210 in part because of the grassroots efforts by our members in opposing this legislation. The proposal, however, is expected to make a return engagement in 2010.
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Although we helped stave off an attack on Iowa’s 60-year-old right-to-work law, attempts to chip away at it again will be made in the next session of the Legislature. We will continue to fight against any change to this fundamental right.
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While all citizens must pay their fair share of the cost of government, excessive taxation stifles the economic activity necessary to producing the revenue needed for government to function. Wisconsin needs to reduce the tax burden and enact strict controls on spending at all levels of government.
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The lawyer lobby is one of the most powerful in the state—and it does not take defeat easily. Although this year we helped defeat a proposal to mandate attorney fees in some workers’ compensation cases, the lawyers are itching for a re-match in 2010. Small business owners should acquaint their local legislators with California’s experience with workers’ compensation when lawyers infested the system. By 2004, California’s system had become so costly it was bleeding the state dry of jobs. Workers’ comp rates are set based on the dangers of particular jobs. Up until 2003, the average rate of workers’ compensation per $100 of payroll was $6.45. But for construction companies in California, especially roofers, who have higher-risk jobs, business there were paying as much as $99.68 per $100 of payroll, according to the Workers Compensation Insurance Ratings Bureau. Reforms put in place that year dropped the average rate per $100 of payroll down to $2.25, and for the roofing industry, down to $47.80. California employers have since saved $15 billion per year in workers compensation premiums.
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HB 664 requires taxation of capital gains under the interest and dividends tax. The bill also increases the standard exemption under the interest and dividends tax to $5,000 from $2,400.
