11/15/2007
CONTACT: Michelle Bolton, 602-263-7690 or Tony Malandra, 415-664-9685
Ballots fanning out this week
PHOENIX -- The voting season has started for Arizona members of America's leading small-business advocacy group, the National Federation of Independent Business.
Unique among most organizations, NFIB centers its state and federal lobbying positions on what its members tell it are vital to their survival as entrepreneurs. Results from the ballots are communicated to the public, media and policymakers, many of which consider the responses the true voice of small business.
"We must constantly remind all stakeholders in an economy that small business is not a smaller version of big business, but instead has different difficulties in remaining solvent," said Michelle Bolton, NFIB/Arizona state director. "Among those differences are the facts that small businesses pay almost twice as much as big businesses do to comply with the same regulations and that personal -- not corporate -- tax rates matter more to smaller entrepreneurs."
Bolton said another major difference between small and large businesses can be found in this year's Arizona ballot: health care. While almost all big companies and corporations provide health care for their employees, less than half of small-business owners can afford to do so.
Three of four questions on this year's NFIB/Arizona Member State Ballot deal with health care. They are: Should Arizona require all employers to offer and pay for health insurance for their employees? Should the state transform the Health Care Group of Arizona into a health-insurance risk pool for individuals with serious medical conditions? Should Arizona repeal a law requiring small businesses to be without health insurance for at least six months in order to participate in Health Care Group?
The fourth question asks if Arizona should expand the state transaction privilege tax to include personal and business services.
"The cost and availability of health care has been small business' No. 1 concern for the past 20 years," said Bolton, "so it is not surprising that it should dominate our poll."
Members can vote by mail, fax or online. A February 2008 poll will ask questions on federal issues. Results from the NFIB/Arizona Ballot are expected in late December, shortly before the upcoming 2008 legislative session.
