Institute in Trib Local: Business Climate Explored at Summit
John Tillman, CEO of the Illinois Public Policy Institute, spoke about tax increases recently passed by state lawmakers.
By Carolyn Rusin
Out of a job for two years, Rosette Marturana is trying to start her own business, but her credit is poor and she can’t get a loan.
“… Funding is impossible for the little people,” said Marturana, 48, of Mount Prospect. “Everybody’s credit has really been going in the slump.”
Marturana, formally a contract collector at a trucking company in Arlington Heights, attended a business summit in Barrington because she wanted to learn from experts on how to navigate through tax and health care costs that could burden a small business owner and how to use a federal agency to help with securing capital, among other insights.
The Barrington Area Chamber of Commerce sponsored the summit on “New Reality – Taxation Healthcare Workforce” that was attended by about 125 people, including business owners and local government officials from Barrington, Lake Barrington and South Barrington, as well as School District 220 officials and State Rep. Mark Beaubien.
John Tillman, CEO of the Illinois Public Policy Institute, spoke about tax increases recently passed by state lawmakers.
“While every other state is getting better, we are getting worse,” said Tillman, noting that higher taxes are driving businesses to other states. “The best thing people can do is ask for reform.”
The moderator, Bill Moller, host of WGN-AM’s “Your Money” program, suggested, “Make noise, complain.”
Tillman advised business owners and others to take extra care.
“You can’t persuade legislation, but control what you can. When costs go up, you have to control what you can,” he said.
Judith Roussel, of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Illinois district, discussed new opportunities.
“We increased loan sizes. We added new programs,” said Roussel, noting that one industry on the rise is exporting. “There are a lot of areas for small businesses to grow. There’s lots of initiatives that can help create revenue and create jobs because that’s what small businesses do.
“Small businesses create 50 percent of the total workforce. There’s a lot of reason to support small businesses.”
Health care reform and how it will affect employee benefits was discussed by Marcus Newman, a vice president of GCG Financial.
“This is a very complex issue,” he said. “We can embrace consumer-driven health care. We need to get the consumer back in. We need to be more involved.”
Barrington Hills resident Michael Schmechtig wanted to know how the new health care law would affect his Mundelein-based landscaping business that has 75 seasonal workers plus 25 full-time employees.
If he has to pay benefits to the seasonal workers, he said, “That would probably put us out of business.”
Newman advised business owners to shop around for health coverage and to review policies annually, saying loyalty to a health care provider doesn’t hold water anymore.
“Those days are long gone. We have to go where the coverage is quality and affordable,” he said.
Before the summit, Mark Munro of Baird & Warner in Barrington said business is improving.
“The economy is rebounding, that’s a great thing. We expect to see more of the same in 2011, but it could be several more years before we get through the foreclosure slump,” he said.
Aaron Muller and his wife, Annie, echoed a similar statement, though foreclosures have helped their business, Barrington Resale in Algonquin, as homeowners sell their furniture to the shop. But there are not a lot of buyers.
“We have more supply than demand,” Annie Muller said.
“We get a call a week,” said Aaron Muller, from people whose houses are being foreclosed and want to sell their furniture. “That’s a lot. These are real people suffering in a real way.”
But the state income tax hike looms huge, the couple said.
“That’s not helping our business, so what are we going to do to make up for that? That’s the talk of the town – the big tax hike,” he said.
Marturana just wanted to know how to get her business going. It’s the Get Home Smart Card, a reloadable prepaid taxi card.
“Every bank I went to loved the idea, but they won’t give me a loan,” she said.
Roussel partially addressed her question.
“The SBA does not encourage banks to make bad loans, but there are ways to raise credit scores,” she said. And other options are smaller equity and extended payments, she suggested.