Small business counting on Governor Ducey to deliver on inaugural pledge made yesterday
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Chad Heinrich, Arizona State Director, 602-567-0276, [email protected]
or Tony Malandra, Senior Media Manager, 415-640-5156, [email protected]
PHOENIX, Ariz., Jan. 8, 2019—Coming on the heels of Gov. Doug Ducey’s inaugural address, yesterday, today’s release of the latest Small Business Economic Trends (SBET) report underscores the importance of the chief executive’s goals if small-business optimism is to remain at historic highs.
“It was nice to hear Governor Ducey’s desire to hold the line on big government while at the same time working to make government more responsive,” said Chad Heinrich, NFIB’s Arizona state director. “We’re proud to have a state chief executive who, in entering his second term, has shown success in turning his message into reality. Today’s Optimism Index in NFIB’s SBET highlights the importance of building on the accomplishments of the past four years.”
The NFIB Research Center has collected Small Business Economic Trends data since 1986. Survey respondents are drawn from NFIB’s membership. The SBET is one of the few archival data sets on small business, particularly when research questions address business operations rather than opinions. Today, it’s the largest, longest-running data set on small business economic conditions available, used by the Federal Reserve, presidential administrations, Congress, and governors and state legislatures across the nation as the gold standard measurement on the economic health of Main Street enterprises. The report is released on the second Tuesday of each month. Today’s survey was conducted in December 2018.
The latest Optimism Index showed “job openings setting a record high and job creation plans strengthening. Reports of higher worker compensation remained near record levels and inventory investment plans surged. Expected real sales growth and expected business conditions in the next six months, however, accounted for the modest decline in the Index.”
Added Heinrich, “As Arizona’s Legislative Session convenes next week, policymakers have one overriding decision to make: Do we pause or do we play through and continue to focus on strengthening the environment for small businesses in our state. With the largest projected revenue surplus in a decade and a spending lobby full of ideas, it will take real discipline to hold the line on growing government, reject calls to raise taxes and make certain that Arizona doesn’t suffer the fiscal fate of its past in the wake of the next economic downturn.”
The national news release on today’s Small Business Economic Trends report can be read here. Keep up with the latest on Arizona small-business at www.nfib.com/arizona or by following NFIB on Twitter @NFIB_AZ
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For more than 75 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven. Since our founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.
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