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Kerry and Small Business

Maine's economy moves on the back of small businesses. The largest employers in the state are small businesses such as Cole Farms Restaurant and Wing's Tank and Tummy. How does the current leader among the Democrats rate in terms of small business?

The Small Business Survival Committee shared these observations:
Senator John Kerry's (D-MA) new front-runner status in the Democratic presidential primary contest has heightened the interest in his stand on issues. As a former small business owner (a cookie and muffin shop - Kilvert and Forbes - that he opened in 1976 with a friend in Boston's Quincy Market) and current Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Kerry has championed several issues of interest to small business.

From "unbundling" federal government contracts, to simplifying tax filing, providing immediate write-offs for new technology investments, and proposing a variety of "capital access" initiatives for new and high-growth firms, some proposals have garnered solid small business support.

However, he parts company on the issues of full death tax repeal, as well as his support for "rolling back" tax relief on those so-called "upper income" taxpayers, many of which are small businesses that pay taxes as individuals. His health care reform plan has gotten little traction with the small business community, particularly when other reforms (like HSAS and AHPs) more widely supported by the sector have a current champion in the White House.

Voters can check out his small business initiatives at his website: http://www.johnkerry.com/issues/smallbiz/
*Information on John Kerry gathered from the Small Business Survival Committee, (SBSC) a non-partisan 50,000 member nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy and lobbying organization. Their website: http://www.sbsc.org/

Small Business Survival Index, 2003 from SBSC:

Introduction
Why should elected officials be concerned about small businesses? After all, aren't the big companies where the action is in terms of the economy? Well, no. Small businesses and entrepreneurs truly are the backbone of the U.S. economy, and the primary source of job creation. Consider the following facts about small business as spelled out recently by the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy in its "Small Business by the Numbers" publication:

-- Businesses with fewer than 500 employees account for 99.7 percent of all employers..
-- These firms employ more than half of private--sector employees.
- Small businesses create between 60 percent and 80 percent of net new jobs. In fact, "start -ups" in the first two years of operation accounted for
virtually all of the net new jobs in the economy.
-- Small businesses create 13 to 14 times the number of patents per employee compared to large patenting businesses.
-- 39 percent of high-tech workers are employed by small businesses.
-- Small businesses account for 97 percent of all exporting businesses.

Small Business Survival Index 2003: State Rankings
(Ranked from the Friendliest, #1, to the Least Friendly, #51)
Maine: 48th out of 51, includes Washington DC.