Business Owner: Politicians Don't Listen
Dear Editor,
Regarding your recent editorial, "A Costly Miss” (WBJ, Nov. 23, 2009), I would like to comment on your point, "Small business needs to find its large voice on this issue [health care], and fast."
There are two mountainous issues driving small business owners, like me, away from public hearings, the type which prompted your editorial.
First, I have to ask, "Who will run my business when I am not here?" Remember, we are not talking about large corporate entities. Whether we are talking about a biomedical company like mine, or a restaurant, car repair shop, etc., small business has one thing in common. If the owner/founder/president is not in work, work simply does not get done. My day is spent either developing medical technology, or talking on the phone to generate sales. Any minute I am not in the lab, something is suffering. My fellow employees cannot pick up the slack indefinitely. Therefore if I am to attend outside events, I must focus on ones where a clear benefit will be derived.
This leads to my second issue: "Who in government cares about small business?" Actions speak louder than words, and the actions of government — from the state to the feds — is loud and clear: “We (the government) do NOT care about small business.”
Ponder the following inconvenient truths. There are scores of people in the state government trying to lure companies like Novartis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, etc. to Massachusetts. If the net result is the creation of 5,000 jobs, I'd be amazed. On the other hand, more than 125,000 employers in Massachusetts have under 20 employees. Where is the effort to create a business climate to allow each of those employers to create one job each? That would create 125,000 jobs and only requires some legislation and no additional state employees.
With specific regard to health care, small business has been saying for DECADES that the system is broken and out of control. Rather than address the issues driving up cost, what does our beloved Massachusetts government do? It REQUIRES us to buy this useless and overpriced product. Is that supposed to incentivize health insurance and health providers to reduce cost? What it did do, in fact, is the exact same thing the proposed federal regulations will do: INCREASE costs. Are we now supposed to believe that the political class suddenly "cares"?
So what it comes down to is this. When do people decide enough is enough and just give up on Massachusetts? I cannot answer this. I'm still here. Ask the owners of the 3,547 small businesses (less than 20 employees) who either closed shop or left the state between 2003 and 2005 (latest data available).
Al Prescott,
President
Crescent Innovations Inc., Worcester
WBJ Web Partners
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