Businesses, people hurting
The crisis spawned by Wall Street has hit Main Street in Montana.
Yet in some sectors of society here, there seems to be little sympathy for the health of our business community. In some quarters, "business" is a bad word and every business is an evil entity making a killing.
Even in the face of this worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, business owners have come to expect this attitude from social reformers, so don't ever expect sympathy for their businesses.
But what about the actual people – human beings – who own these business and work in them?
What about the people?
The Gambling Control Division released preliminary gaming tax collection figures April 19 that show the industry recession in revenues deepened significantly from the October-December quarter to the January-March quarter, from a decline of almost 18 percent to a discouraging 21 percent.
Gaming income for Montana's 1,650 operators declined $40 million in the past six months. That's an average of over $4,000 per month per establishment or $24,250 for the semi-annum. Anyone who has owned or operated a small business understands the implications of those numbers.
The implications for government are also significant: a decline in gaming tax collections, which feed the general fund, of $5.8 million in just six months.
Most economic sectors in Montana have taken similar blows. The hospitality industry is not alone. State tax coffers are shrinking commensurately.
We know some establishments have closed their doors. Granted, these may have been marginal operations in the first place, but in small, rural communities in Montana, every single business matters, for the employment they provide, the products and services rendered and the contributions to local government tax bases.
Some of these struggling establishments have been in families for generations. Current owners likely bought them 10 or 20 years ago and slaved to make monthly payments for years before seeing a little profit they could actually put in the bank. Their futures and retirements are tied up in the real estate and business equity.
In 95 percent of the cases, these hospitality businesses are family owned enterprises, not some faceless, big-city based corporation.
What about these people?
They are your friends and community members who worship at your church and run your Cub Scout Pack and serve on your city council and chamber of commerce. They conduct the fundraiser for the cancer victim and sponsor the Little League team. They may farm on the side or run a computer repair service or a little tax office. They host the barbecue and dance at the summer festival.
And what about the workers?
These, too, are your friends and neighbors. They struggle to get and keep work shifts. They want to own a home, educate their kids, get them to the orthodontist, maybe take a vacation to Yellowstone, buy an ATV. They're just like you and me. They want an opportunity to better their lives. The last thing they want is to be converted from a tax payer to a tax consumer.
Perhaps some may not have sympathy for a tavern and gaming business, but we can't believe anyone is so calloused that they don't care about the well being of the people who operate them and work in them.
Some are sewing the legislative field to enact ever more onerous laws to the further detriment of our state's small businesses, including and especially more taxes. How they could do so in good conscience, at a time like this, is beyond us.
Business cycles wax and wane. This is a time of waning. It is certainly not the time to burden struggling businesses even further. It is not the time to add more restrictions and "reforms." It is not the time to push the business doors closed and see workers join the ranks of the unemployed. We have too much of all that already.
Lastly, it is not the time to increase the tax burden, siphoning needed money away from businesses that simply don't have it. Hopefully, we can take some comfort in Gov. Brian Schweitzer's promise that he will oppose – even veto – tax increases. We simply can't afford an era of radical social reform in an era of recession. But we could stand an era of tax and regulatory reform that would spur business activity and employment. What we need is new public policy to be developed to ease business burdens and allow a return to prosperity ... for the sake of the owners, the workers, our government, our communities and all of us in the public.