02/11/2008
CONTACT: Tom Jones, 307-635-8524 or Tony Malandra, 415-664-9685
Big opposition to forcing entrepreneurs to provide health insurance also revealed
CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- A poll of Wyoming small-business owners released today by their leading representative group has a few messages for state legislators as they reconvene this morning.
Unique among most organizations, the National Federation of Independent Business centers its state and federal lobbying positions on what its members tell it -- through annual polls -- are vital to their survival as entrepreneurs. When asked if the Legislature should tighten Wyoming's corporate and limited-liability-company laws in order to clamp down on an alarming rise in fraudulent activities, 57 percent of NFIB/Wyoming-member, small-business owners said 'Yes,' 25 percent said 'No,' and 18 percent were either undecided or did not respond.
By a much bigger margin, 87 percent of respondent opposed state government forcing small-business owners to either provide heath insurance or pay into a state-controlled fund that would. Only 8 percent supported the idea. The balance were either undecided or did not respond.
Rounding out the five-question poll, 77 percent of small-business owners said 'No' to the question asking if the Legislature should establish toll roads or toll lanes, 15 percent said 'Yes,' and the remaining 8 percent were either undecided or did not respond. When asked if the Legislature should amend the state's sales tax law to allow for the collection of sales taxes on motor vehicles at the time of purchase, 62 percent said 'No,' 29 percent though it a good idea, and 9 percent were undecided or did not respond.
The poll's slimmest margin came in answer to the question, "Should the Legislature amend the state's workers' compensation laws to allow for cost-of-living adjustments for those receiving permanent total disability payments?" Fifty-two percent said 'No,' 38 percent said 'Yes,' and 10 percent were undecided or did not respond.
"Small-business owners desperately want to provide health care for their employees," said NFIB/Wyoming State Director Tom Jones, commenting on one of the poll's questions, "but forcing them to do it puts them in an unfortunate position of having to weight whether to stay in business at all. The cost and availability of health care has been the top concern of small-business owners for 24 years, and NFIB and others have proposed ways to help alleviate the crisis. Forced compliance was not one of them."
Jones also said the poll seemed to support the secretary of state's efforts to tighten Wyoming business-formation laws, which are so loose that the state has become a magnet for unscrupulous operators. He cautioned lawmakers, however, to be on the lookout against accidentally wringing out some of the entrepreneurial attraction to starting a legitimate business in Wyoming.
