Years ago, a small family-owned grocery store at the north end of Taos was known for having the best meat in town.\u00a0 The meat was always laid out on fresh butcher paper in immaculately clean glass-fronted display cases.\u00a0\u00a0 It was never pre-wrapped.\u00a0 You got to select exactly the piece you wanted, wrapped freshly for you by an employee, usually a member of the family.\u00a0 I bought most of my meat there, confident that it was clean and unspoiled.<\/p>\n
One of the owners told me about new government regulations requiring expensive refrigeration equipment they couldn\u2019t afford.\u00a0 The equipment was intended to keep meat safe, but this store took good care of its meat without the extra equipment or the regulations.\u00a0 He asked, was this a move by the big supermarket chains to drive small family stores like theirs out of business?<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t think so.\u00a0 I reasoned that the chains wouldn\u2019t mind, and might even welcome, a uniform set of rules.\u00a0 The rules would provide guidance to store managers, give them a standard, and probably also give direction to the equipment manufacturers. \u00a0The chains probably didn\u2019t even consider competition from small operations like his.\u00a0 And so, with complicity from government, big store chains made it harder for the little guy to stay in business.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t do it on purpose, but that\u2019s what happened.<\/p>\n
That grocery store closed years ago and probably not just because of regulations.\u00a0 I tell the story now because it was an early lesson in the conflict between small family businesses and big corporations.<\/p>\n
Throughout the just-finished legislative session we heard from \u201cpro-business\u201d interest groups, and I found myself wondering what it means to be pro-business.<\/p>\n
Pro which business?<\/p>\n
Small businesses consume the services of big businesses, just like the rest of us.\u00a0 They pay utility bills, they buy insurance, they buy equipment.\u00a0\u00a0 And they are captive taxpayers.<\/p>\n
I am \u201cpro\u201d small business, rather than pro-business in general, partly because I celebrate the sense of independence and community responsibility that is built into the character of so many small business owners, and partly because I see small businesses getting squeezed by both the economic and the regulatory environments.\u00a0 They are at a disadvantage compared to corporations\u2019 deep pockets, management efficiencies and marketing power. And they are at the mercy of rules and laws made not with the intention of harming them but without understanding of what \u201csmall\u201d means.<\/p>\n
This applies in the workers’ compensation system, which I know well. \u00a0An assumption of that system, built into the law, taken for granted and barely noticed, is that the employer understands the rules and knows what to do when a workers’ compensation situation is triggered.\u00a0 After talking to small business owners for almost two decades, I can tell you that most of them don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
It also applies in other areas of employment law. Various state and federal programs to encourage business to hire, with tax incentives and so on, have so much paperwork attached that small business owners can\u2019t afford to take advantage of them, as business-owning friends have told me. \u00a0The first time I heard of such a tax credit,\u00a0 the only business in town to benefit from it was the local McDonalds.<\/p>\n
As we watch the final signings and vetoes from the 2013 legislative session, New Mexico has, as usual, been under pressure from national corporate interests and made some progress in becoming more attractive to them, from film credits to the single sales factor.\u00a0 But how have we supported those New Mexico-based that have been serving us, and employing us, for generations?\u00a0 I\u2019m asking:\u00a0 reader, if you are a small business owner, or if you talk to friends who are small business owners, I\u2019d like to know what has this year\u2019s legislative session has done for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Years ago, a small family-owned grocery store at the north end of Taos was known for having the best meat in town.\u00a0 The meat was always laid out on fresh butcher paper in immaculately clean glass-fronted display cases.\u00a0\u00a0 It was … Continue reading