Small business is anything but small in Louisiana, with 365,000 small businesses in the state employing 55% of the workforce—5% more than the national average—and constituting the vast majority of the state’s businesses overall.
Renee Baker, director of the Louisiana chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business since 2007, is the one who looks out for all 365,000 of them whenever lawmakers get together to make decisions that could have an impact on her constituents.
Now she is hunkered down in her downtown office, where she is girding for battle against the Legislature on behalf of her constituents.
1. What are your top priorities for the session?
The first one is a health insurance tax credit for small employers. Several have been filed already. A couple are for all employers, and there’s one for less than 25 [employees] and one for less than 10. Ours is the one that’s for less than 10.
2. Don’t bills like that come around every year?
I believe the health insurance tax credit. I know one legislator files something similar to it almost every year. It seems like this year there’s been many more than what have typically been filed. But we all know that the health insurance situation is bad. Our national office is looking at the broader reform that would cover the national landscape.
3. What else is on the agenda?
We’re always looking for tax reform. There’s one bill to eliminate the bottom rung of the franchise tax. Another one that would exempt capital gains from your personal income tax, which would be two really good bills for small business, and especially those looking at expanding startups. I hear a lot of complaints from NFIB members right now that they’re having problems gaining access to capital, which I don’t think is a surprise to anybody with the banking situation the way it is.
4. What’s the biggest worry for small business owners these days?
The health insurance issue is just huge. That is No. 1. We survey our members constantly, and consistently health insurance has been their No. 1 issue. Tax compliance ranks up in there. Workers comp is a major problem for them.
5. How small are the small businesses you represent?
Typically we represent businesses that have between five and eight employees, so when I say small I mean small. I don’t think people realize that a lot of times. I think they’re thinking a couple hundred employees. We do have some businesses that have several hundred employees, but 80% of my membership has less than 15 employees.
6. Gov. Bobby Jindal is refusing some of the stimulus funds that would expand jobless benefits on the grounds that it would eventually cost small business. Do you agree?
We’ve been in the middle of all the unemployment insurance discussion with the stimulus funds. We believe that that is absolutely going to trickle down to business.
7. What about the argument that the policy could be done when the stimulus funds dry up?
We have had experts look at it. What we’re being told is that [the feds] absolutely wanted the law to be permanent. But let us just say that you could repeal it. How often has a lawmaker implemented a benefit for a constituency and then turned around and repealed it? Especially when we don’t know what the economy’s going to be like in two or three years when the funds dry up. That’s a real practical matter for us, especially when you’re looking at expanding it to part-time employees.
8. But small business doesn’t have the lobbying power some interests do, right?
I’m it. It’s me. Our organization, small business, we don’t have tens of millions of dollars to spend.
9. In other words, you don’t have much leisure time these days.
There’s never any down time when the Legislature is in, that’s for sure. I know a lot of times what seems like a really good [bill], I don’t know if all the unintended consequences have really been investigated. That is part of why we are always at the table with the insurance coverage mandate issue, which I know will come up again this session, with them wanting to expand health insurance for small employers that have a hard time just buying a very basic policy.
10. In general, what’s the mood of your constituents?
Our guys are definitely not optimistic. They’re kind of cautiously holding their breath. I think what we’ve seen is not necessarily that [investment] is drying up, but that everyone’s just holding onto their pocketbook, because they’re scared they’re about to be taxed exponentially beyond what they’re used to.
