National Federation of Independent Business gives 7th District lawmakers Guardian of Small Business Award

The state’s largest small business advocacy group, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), recognized Reps. Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda, and Shelly Short, R-Addy, with its Guardian of Small Business Award for their efforts in the Legislature to support measures that help small-business owners be successful and oppose policies that hurt them. The 8,000-member association grades lawmakers on their votes on 10 pieces of legislation. Kretz and Short both received a 100 percent voting record for the 2011-12 biennium.

“When you travel around the Seventh District, it’s clear that the majority of jobs are created by small businesses like mine. They employ our friends, family and neighbors in areas where big businesses choose not to operate or, in the case of our part of the state, cannot get the permits needed to begin operations,” said Kretz, who also received the NFIB Legislator of the Year Award in 2010. “Entrepreneurs risk their own capital to start their businesses and create jobs that support our communities and the services our local governments provide. Anything I can do to support them, I will.”

“Small businesses are quite literally the backbone of our state and local economies,” said Short, who also received the 2011 Cornerstone Award from the Association of Washington Business. “One of the things I hear the most from folks back home is the need to protect the jobs we have and to help find ways to expand our region’s economic opportunities. A vote on the House floor for a bill being supported by NFIB is a vote supporting the many entrepreneurs and job-producers in our state. I’m grateful for the recognition from NFIB but even more grateful for their work and assistance in supporting those small employers around the state who contribute so much to our economy.”

According to a report authored this year by the United States Small Business Administration, small businesses totaled 532,162 in Washington in 2009. They represent 98.1 percent of all employers and employ 53.3 percent of the private-sector workforce.

According to NFIB Washington State Director Patrick Connor, the cost of tax compliance falls heavily on small business and is 66 percent higher for a small business compared to a large business. And, he pointed out a national study that found small firms with fewer than 20 employees spend $2,400, or 45 percent, more per employee than larger firms do in complying with the same federal regulations.

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