Small business owners concerned about fiscal cliff

Tom Perriello, a former congressman from Virginia and current CEO of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, joined national small business advocacy organization Small Business Majority and a local small business owner on a tele-press conference call to discuss the “fiscal cliff” and how it might affect entrepreneurs and the middle class—a category virtually all their customers and 97 percent of small business owners fall into.

Small employers are becoming increasingly concerned about how going over the fiscal cliff could affect the spending power of their customers and their businesses’ bottom lines.

Recent polling released by Small Business Majority found an overwhelming majority of small employers are aware of the fiscal cliff situation and are very concerned. The poll also found that small employers favor extending the middle class tax cuts but believe letting tax breaks expire for the wealthiest 2 percent is the right thing to do given our current budget crisis.

“The longer that lawmakers take to find a solution to the fiscal cliff situation, the more uncertainty it causes for my business and for my customers,” said Mike Brey, owner of Hobby Works in Fairfax, Va. and a Small Business Majority Network Council member. “It’s pretty clear some lawmakers are holding out on making a deal in an attempt to extend tax cuts for the wealthiest. That’s the exact opposite of what we need right now. Much more important are cuts for the middle class—that’s the engine that fuels our economy and my business.”

Falling off the fiscal cliff would have dire consequences for entrepreneurs and the middle class. A number of the tax provisions scheduled to lapse are ones that help entrepreneurs save money, allowing them to grow and hire. Many of the same tax cuts also put money back into the pockets of middle class consumers, which drives demand for small businesses’ goods and services more than anything else.  That’s why small business owners are more concerned about improving economic conditions for the middle class. Small Business Majority’s poll found 86 percent of small business owners oppose increasing tax rates for household income below $250,000, and seven in 10 strongly oppose it.

“Small businesses understand the need to fix our current economic crisis, and have made it clear they feel a balanced way to do that is to extend tax cuts for the middle class and let those for high-income earners lapse,” said Rhett Buttle, National Outreach & Government Affairs Director for Small Business Majority. “As America’s chief job creators, small businesses’ opinions should be carefully considered by lawmakers as they work to find a solution and avoid the cliff.”