Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund insolvency, small business tax reform, and the devastating effects of RGGI and P3 bridge tolling were top priorities at NFIB’s capital day
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HARRISBURG, PA (May 24, 2022) – Today, small business owners from across Pennsylvania met with elected officials for NFIB’s Small Business Day. The event gave hardworking small business owners, who have weathered more than two years of pandemic-response effects and economic pain, the opportunity to advocate face-to-face with lawmakers for needed relief and reforms that will jumpstart economic recovery and support small businesses and their employees.
“Pennsylvania’s small businesses and our state’s economy stand at a crucial and precarious point,” said Greg Moreland, NFIB’s Pennsylvania State Director. “Pennsylvania businesses have suffered through a pandemic and state-imposed shutdowns and restrictions, with Main Street being hit the hardest. Now, crushing Unemployment Insurance rates, record-high inflation, supply chain disruptions, and a qualified worker shortage on top of the state’s archaic tax structure threaten these businesses and local economies.”
“Small business owners are looking to Harrisburg to consider policies that set small businesses up for success, not stack the deck against them,” continued Moreland. “It was constructive for small business members to meet with lawmakers in both parties today and tell them about NFIB’s 2022 legislative priorities and the struggles they are facing to keep their doors open. It is imperative that the General Assembly address the Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund insolvency. If this debt is not paid off by the end of the year, employers will begin to lose their FUTA tax credits and face higher UI rates. Now is the time to address this crisis as well as provide meaningful tax reform and regulatory relief for small businesses.”
NFIB’s opposition to the state’s entrance into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and the P3 tolling of local bridges was also discussed. “RGGI will impose extensive costs on the production of energy in Pennsylvania, and these costs will be passed on to ratepayers. During this time of economic uncertainty, we should be looking at ways to lower energy prices, not enacting policies that will increase them. Similarly, tolling local bridges will affect businesses up and down the supply chain and make Pennsylvania’s small businesses less competitive in the aftermath of the pandemic,” added Moreland.
NFIB is grateful to all the lawmakers who made time to meet with our members and participate in the advocacy day press conference, particularly Sen. Wayne Langerholc, Rep. James Struzzi, Rep. Eric Nelson, and Rep. Stan Saylor.
NFIB is proud to have the generous support of its 2022 sponsors, including:
Capital BlueCross
AT&T
Commonwealth Foundation
Cranston Material Handling
PICPA
Orion Strategies
Seneca Resources
Keystone Contractors Association, Inc.
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NFIB is the voice of small business, advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners in Washington, D.C., and 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/PA.
