Michigan State Director Amanda Fisher gave a presentation on the State of Small Business in front of the House Economic Competitiveness Committee on Thursday, September 4, 2025.

Fisher reviewed the number of small businesses in Michigan and stressed their importance to Michigan’s economy, pointing out that small businesses employ almost half of the workforce.

Legislators were specifically interested in what other states were doing to help make Michigan’s business environment better and Fisher pointed out that we need to look at what we were doing 10 years ago and revisited the many positive reforms from 2011-2018.

Fisher noted that both economic uncertainty and regulatory/legislative uncertainty are in the top 10 of NFIB member concerns.

Finally, she made suggestions on how to move Michigan forward including:

• Elimination of personal property taxes on commercial and industrial businesses
• Permanent deduction of the income to tax to 4.05% and look at ways to continue to reduce the income tax and other taxes
• Economic development reform that encourages and helps businesses of all sizes in Michigan rather than corporate handouts
• Provide small business exemptions for the Earned Sick Time Act
• Reinstate Workplace Freedom (Right to Work)
• Scale back scheduled increases to unemployment insurance benefits and hold beneficiaries accountable in regard to work search requirements
• Provide legislative fixes for harmful and activist decisions made by the courts

Fisher concluded that, “First, policymakers should first do no harm and strive for a stable economic environment. The wild swings of labor policy and economic development over the past 7 years have made small business owners more risk averse, dampening entrepreneurship.”

The full presentation can be viewed HERE.  Slides from the presentation can be viewed HERE.