NFIB

CONTACT: Kevin Shivers, (717) 571-0009

by Kevin Shivers and Floyd Warner

The eyes of the world might be fixed squarely on the outcomes of this year's presidential and congressional elections. But it's the politicians in the state legislature who have the greatest influence on the daily health of our local businesses.  

That's why it's important for business owners and working families in Dauphin County to know they have a strong ally in Sen. Jeff Piccola (R-Dauphin).

During his tenure in the General Assembly, Sen. Piccola has established himself as a potent and powerful voice for job creators and working families. Sen. Piccola recognizes that small businesses are the driving force behind Pennsylvania's economy, and he shares our vision that a healthy small-business jobs climate can best be achieved through lower taxes, less wasteful state spending and less government regulation.  

While many politicians claim to support small business, Jeff Piccola has the record to back it up. Over the course of his career in the state House and Senate, Sen. Piccola supported small business 93 percent of the time on key issues tracked by the state's leading small-business group, NFIB. His voting record totaled 100 percent five times, including 1982, 1986, 1988, 1990 and 2002. This session, Piccola supported small business 88 percent of the time on key issues, including efforts to reduce property taxes; eliminate junk lawsuits; phase out job-crushing taxes; and ensure opportunities for small business to compete and thrive.

Sen. Piccola is a strong advocate for Main Street -- supporting efforts to find affordable health care for small-business owners and working families. Piccola supported a basic health-care plan in 1994 and voted against mandated health benefits that would have put health coverage out of reach for many local small-business owners and their workers.  

Piccola also was a strong supporter of the workers compensation reforms of 1993 and 1996 to reign in skyrocketing premiums that were smothering local job creators. He's helped to make Pennsylvania's unemployment compensation system fairer for both workers and employers; voted to make sure local governments pay their bills promptly to small business; voted for tougher penalties for those who pass bad checks and allow businesses to make civil recovery for shoplifting; and he helped to create the small-business advocate to give business owners a fighting chance before the Public Utility Commission.

Sen. Piccola has led the fight against junk lawsuits that clog our courts and cost local jobs. Tragically, many small employers are just one lawsuit away from bankruptcy. Lawsuit filings have tripled in the last 30 years and the cost for an innocent business owner just to defend an average lawsuit can run $100,000. Piccola was a principal architect of reforms to protect job creators from frivolous asbestos lawsuits that threatened thousands of jobs; he led the fight in the state Senate for the Fair Share Act that ensures responsible parties in a lawsuit are held responsible for damages; he's worked to protect retailers that sell a product and are unaware of any defects; and provide a reasonable limit on the number of years that a manufacturer may be held liable for the goods they produce.

Sen. Piccola is a proven tax-cutter. Jeff supported job creating tax cuts in seven out of seven years of the Ridge/Schweiker administrations, including the phase out of the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax and expansion of the Job Creation Tax Credits program.  

He voted for the creation of subchapter-s tax status to give entrepreneurs a step up to start a business and create jobs, and he voted to repeal the state's widow's tax and cut the state death tax -- America's No. 1 killer of family businesses and family farms.  

Moreover, Piccola voted against the $3.1 billion Bob Casey business and personal tax increase in 1991 that US News and World Report called one of the worst economic decisions in the nation.

On behalf of the hardworking small-business members of NFIB -- Pennsylvania's largest small-business advocacy group -- and the state Chamber of Business and Industry, Pennsylvania's largest broad-based business group, we want to thank Jeff Piccola for his hard work on behalf of Pennsylvania's businesses.

Kevin Shivers is state director of the National Federation of Independent Business. A nonprofit, nonpartisan organization founded in 1943, NFIB is the nation's largest small-business advisory group, representing the consensus views of its 600,000 members in Washington, D.C. and all 50 state capitals

Floyd Warner is president of the Pennsylvania of Chamber of Business and Industry. The Pennsylvania Chamber is the state's largest broad-based business association and the fastest growing state chamber in the United States, with more than 10,000 members covering all 67 counties.