As the national government attempts to spur the economy before November elections, U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, District 21, pointed to the importance of small business owners as its lifeblood.

His message was center stage at a forum Sept. 2 at Laura Bush Community Library.
Smith met with local small business owners ahead of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report Friday that the nation’s unemployment rate held at 9.6 percent.
“If we are going to have a healthy economic climate, if we are going to have economic growth in our country, we are going to have to support, and nurture and help all the small business across the land,” Smith said to open the forum.
More than two-thirds of all job creation in the U.S. originates from small businesses.
“They are the ones largely responsible for the increase in productivity in America. So if want to have our standard of living continue to increase, if we want to not only generate jobs but also make sure the salaries are going up, all that more or less is reliant on the well being and success of small businesses,” Smith said.
Acknowledging that Congress will be in session for only a few more weeks, he queried the audience for their suggestions on legislative measures they would like to see authored and passed in Washington, D.C.
Travis County resident Kelly Harrison grilled Smith on his voting record on bills that Harrison believed would help small businesses, such as the failed Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2010, HR 5982, which Smith voted against in July.
He also opposed Small Business Lending Fund Act of 2010, HR 5297, that established the Small Business Lending Fund to finance capital investments to financial institutions to provide loans to small businesses, created the Small Business Credit Initiative to fund state credit support programs for small businesses and an Early Stage Investment Program to fund equity investment financing to support early-stage businesses.
“Those were very partisan bills. There was no effort by the administration or by congressional leaders to try to involve Republicans …,” Smith said, adding that he believed those bills were not funded. “To me, it was not fiscally responsible.”
Smith hammered away at fiscal irresponsibility that he said was dragging the nation’s debt into even greater depths. In the last seven years, the gross national debt has doubled from $7.35 billion in 2004 to an estimated $14.46 billion this year as the federal government spends almost $2 for every $1 it generates in revenue.
He recommended Congress give businesses a tax cut or investment tax credits to create jobs.
“That provides a positive way for them to have a reason to employ more people if they are going to expand their business,” Smith said. “That, to me, is a better way rather than spending more of the taxpayers’ dollars.”
Kathy Carvell of Austin criticized anyone who said taxes were the key.
“I feel like my intelligence is being insulted. The lack of demand to due unemployment is the real problem. Taxes are the red herring,” Carvell said.
On the heels of Friday’s labor report, U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis identified small businesses as the cog to economic recovery.
“To support growth, it is critical to support our small businesses, which are key drivers of our economic recovery. Indeed, two out of every three jobs created in our economy are created by small businesses,” Solis said in a statement.
She cited eight different tax cuts the administration helped pass for small businesses and the Small Business Jobs Act, pending in the Senate, that would provide a set of tax breaks and lending incentives to spur investment and hiring by small businesses.
Officials said the act would accelerate $55 billion of tax relief to encourage American businesses, small and large, to expand their investments over the next 14 months.”
At the state level, Kathy Barber, Texas legislative director of National Federation of Independent Business, said that the overriding concern that comes up in her conversations with small business owners across the state is about health-care reform and what legislators really passed in the reform bill this year.
Barber cited several concerns at the forum with the recently passed health care bill, including Section 9006 that requires all businesses, starting in 2012, to issue 1099 tax forms to anyone or any business that they do more than $600 of business with in a tax year.
“Those types of things keep coming to the surface, and it really scares small businesses. It’s really hard for them to understand what their future looks like at this point,” said Barber, whose agency represents more than 25,000 small and independent businesses in Texas and 350,000 nationally. “I will tell you repeatedly that the fear of hiring people is a result of not knowing what that future looks like.”
Rollingwood Mayor Bill Hamilton shared concerns of local governments with the forum audience.
The city has 14 commercial properties that contain a total of 200 small businesses. so the timing of Smith’s forum couldn’t have been better.
“Our goal is to make sure they don’t get any smaller,” Hamilton said.
The community is set to distribute its inaugural business survey to all companies in Rollingwood to retain and attract businesses to the area.
Despite the animated debate with some audience members, Smith said he valued the opportunity to learn first-hand what his constituents are thinking.
“I think all this helps me be a better member of Congress,” he said. “Anyone can come and anyone can say what they want to whether they agree or disagree.”
He pointed to the post-election months as a time when representatives could refocus on a solution.
“The election is only two months away. Hopefully, after that, there will be more certainty. Maybe there will be more agreement on policies and then we’ll know more about the taxes.”