NWA LETTERS

Help small businesses,

not big chicken plant

I attended the March 27 Benton County Quorum Court meeting. There was an open session at the beginning of the meeting so people could talk about Simmons, the bonds to be issued and the tax break that Simmons would receive. First, let me state, I fully understand why Simmons would like a tax break. Wouldn’t we all like one? The mayor of Decatur and the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce for Siloam Springs spoke in favor of Simmons. The full Quorum Court agreed to forward the issue for the third and final reading in April.

I thought Benton County was a Republican-controlled county. If that were the case, the county would be for a smaller government, less intrusion in individuals’ lives and for less taxes.

The driving issue regarding Simmons appeared to me to be focused on the number of jobs Simmons is going to create in the future. Nobody mentioned what sector of the business community actually creates the majority of the jobs. Nobody! According to the Small Business Administration: Since the latest recession, from mid-2009 to 2011, small firms have accounted for 67 percent of the net new jobs. That’s two out of every three new jobs. Also, according to the SBA, large businesses only employ about 38 percent of the private-sector workforce while small businesses employ 53 percent of the workforce. In fact, over 99 percent of employing organizations are small businesses and more than 95 percent of these businesses have fewer than 10 employees.

Yet, here we are trying to grant Simmons tax help. If this county really wants growth, it needs to help small businesses, businesses with less than 100 employees. This is where the growth is, not large corporations like Simmons. Simmons does not need the help, small businesses do. Helping Simmons is nothing but crony capitalism. The county is picking winners and losers instead of allowing the free enterprise system to do its job. In addition, they are increasing the tax burden on every private citizen in the county by giving Simmons a tax break. The Quorum Court wants you to believe they are frugal with your tax dollars. However, they turn around and give tax breaks to large corporations! This is not how Republican-controlled governments are suppose to operate.

If the county really wants to promote growth in the county, they should reduce the massive regulations on businesses. This would allow more business to startup, create more jobs and would also even the playing field instead of giving tax breaks to certain businesses to create an unfair advantage over their competition. Only the free enterprise system, not crony capitalism and nor socialism, has raised the masses out of poverty.

MIKE CLIFFORD

Bentonville

[email protected]

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