After listening to all of Gov. Brian Sandoval’s speech, I agree with better education for our children; but I cannot agree with raising the State Business License Fees for small businesses. It’s appalling the governor would think small businesses are a never-ending source of money.
Take a look at our town. What do you see? There are many vacant buildings and dollar stores; but limited quality shops.
The problem with the quality of education is not lack of money, for many of us grew up with no educational frills. No matter how much money you put into the system it’s not necessarily going to better the quality of education. Teaching is a passion and opportunity for teachers to pass on their knowledge and education to their students. Money is not the reason teachers chose this as their career. Good teachers need to be commended, for they have chosen a profession based on moral and ethic attributes of fundamental principles they have worked so hard to achieve. It’s their passion and belief to instill these educational values to their students.
The Mom and Pop businesses make up our city and create a community. They generate their own income, pay overhead, insurance, city taxes and business fees. They raise their own families and do not get weekly pay checks with benefits.
What does this tell our children when their parents are struggling and taxes and city business fees keep increasing, forcing many to close their businesses? How does this support the people who are raising their children to have a better education? Many live pay check to pay check to create their own income. What is the return for this investment to the small business owner?
Our children and being an entrepreneur go hand and hand. Certainly, we do not want to take away the dream of entrepreneurship because we have made it economically unfeasible. This is going to be discouraging for many businesses. To double the State License Fee of $200 to $400 for small businesses is not justified, and this is not going to encourage business growth.
The governor needs to work with all the people and support small businesses.
As important as education reform is for our students, so is the respect of entrepreneurship for our families and the community. We need to build our city and recruit small businesses. Carson City is not business friendly and this is what the Downtown 20/20 group is all about.
Doreen Mack is president of the Downtown 2020 Group and owner of Lofty Expressions.
