The C4 Report from the City of Central Chamber of Commerce

    There can be no doubt that small businesses feel like they are in the crosshairs!  With mounds of paperwork, rising energy prices, increasing government regulations and the threat of higher taxes, many businesses work extremely hard to still succeed!  To further add to the struggle, the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACC) in 2014 looms on the horizon.  Deregulation, harvesting our own domestic energy, and repealing the PPACA are vital to the sustainability of our businesses and our economy.   The following is an excerpt, pertaining to the implementation of PPACA, taken from the U.S. Chamber’s August 2012 edition of Free Enterprise. 

    Mary Miller, CEO of JANCOA Janitorial Services, Inc., a family-owned business headquartered in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area. JANCOA offers its 320 full-time employees a limited benefits plan and covers 85% of the premium. However, most of the employees elect not to enroll, choosing instead to take home more of their compensation in wages. The employer said individual mandates scheduled to take effect in 2014 will eliminate choice. Miller says, “For our company, we will no longer have the option of providing these types of plans, and our employees will no longer have the freedom to choose how to spend their wages.” 

    According to Miller, her company will either have to pay nearly $4,400 per employee for coverage that satisfies the mandate at a cost of nearly $1.4 million per year, stop offering coverage and pay $2,000 per full-time employee in penalties at a cost of $640,000, or transition her staff to part-time status in order to mitigate the penalties. “These three options are not options that I can consider if I want to keep JANCOA’s doors open,” she says. “No matter what we do, our company and our employees will suffer.”

    It is easy to listen to all the rhetoric that is being communicated about the obscene profits being made by big corporations and thus lose sight of the threats to small businesses in this country.  The U.S. Dept. of Commerce describes a “Small Business” as having 500 employees or less.  “According to the economic census, there are close to 6 million businesses in our country which fit into this category and represents 99% of all employer firms.  These firms have generated over 65% of net new jobs over the past 17 years and pay over 44% of the total U.S. private payroll. The implementation of PPACA will not only affect big corporations but also any small business with 50 or more full time employees. I doubt if any business with 50 employees can afford to pay $100,000 in penalties each year and still stay open long term.  During this fall’s elections, let’s make some choices that will support the growth of the economy and hopefully take small businesses out of the crosshairs!