12/17/2007
CONTACT: Candace Daly, 801-599-8519 or Tony Malandra, 415-664-9685
Ballots fanning out this week
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah -- There is more than just the holiday season upon us. For Utah members of America's leading small-business advocacy group, the National Federation of Independent Business, it also is the voting season, as ballots on the issues that matter to them most fan out this week.
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 whom consider responses to the ballot to be the true voice of small business.
"We must constantly remind all stakeholders in an economy that small businesses are not smaller versions of big businesses, but instead have different difficulties in remaining solvent," said Candace Daly, NFIB/Utah 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."
Daly said another major difference between small and large businesses can be found in this year's Utah ballot, too: 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. Two of the four questions on this year's NFIB/Utah Member State Ballot deal with health care.
They ask if Utah should establish a Health Care Exchange and compel all small businesses to buy medical coverage from it and should the Utah Legislature allow health insurers to sell essential-benefits plans stripped of many of the mandated procedures currently on them.
Rounding out the ballot are questions on whether state and local governments should have the power to revoke the businesses licenses of employers who hire illegal immigrants and if the state should establish toll road and toll lanes.
NFIB/Utah members can vote by mail, fax, online, or by e-mail through one-click. After a 5 percent return of ballots, NFIB/Utah will publicize the results shortly before the Utah Legislature convenes on Jan. 21. A ballot on federal issues will be sent to NFIB/Utah members in February.
