Washington's 2010 Legislature proved itself an adversary of small business

THE 2010 Washington State Legislature has not been friendly to small businesses like mine.

The message is clear. While our business has cut costs across the board and asked our employees to make sacrifices in wages and benefits, legislators in Olympia preferred to send us a bill of increased taxes and fees to keep the cost and growth of state government going strong.

What legislators have accomplished feels more like a post-mortem report than a plan to increase economic growth and jobs. Washington is the only state that taxes gross revenue even when a business loses money. Legislators have removed important sales-tax exemptions, and added numerous new fees and utility taxes targeting certain industries. For my company, Becker Trucking Inc., this represents a tax increase of more than $100,000.

Overall in 2009, the state's trucking industry revenues were down by 40 percent with some down as much 60 percent. In more than 23 years, I have never seen it this bad. Trucking company failures accelerated in the fourth quarter of 2009 and will continue to rise as fleets in the worst financial condition run out of cash and creditors run out of patience.

In 2007, Becker Trucking employed 95 people. Today, we have 56 employees. We have reduced benefits and perks and our hourly employees have taken a 15 percent wage cut. Management has taken a 20 percent cut, including my salary at 25 percent. We did this to help the company weather the current economic downturn.

Since revenues are down for all Washington trucking companies, we are left with very few choices. Do we go back to our employees and ask for further sacrifices, or do we eliminate jobs altogether?

What was Olympia's response? Higher fees and taxes for businesses.

Labor and Industries (L&I) fees and taxes are estimated to rise by another 33 percent. Historically, for every dollar that L&I pays in claims on behalf of Becker Trucking, they tax us $3. That is a 200 percent administrative cost. If a private business had a 200 percent administrative cost it would be out of business. The current state tax structure puts Washington-based companies like Becker Trucking at a competitive disadvantage against out-of-state trucking companies.

What can be done to help slow the hemorrhaging of small businesses? First, start with the people who make the laws. It may be too late for this legislative session, but change is what elections are all about. Three out of four legislators come from the public sector. Most legislators have never signed a payroll check, paid a business tax or paid corporate insurance. They haven't experienced the human side of a profit/loss statement.

The lack of private-sector experience means lawmakers have little understanding about how their actions — laws — impact the day-to-day life of a business and the people who depend on those jobs.

Second, lawmakers should look for ways to reduce state labor costs in the same way small businesses have. Opening negotiations with state employee labor unions was never a consideration. Estimates are in the hundreds of millions of dollars in savings to taxpayers if state employee's health benefits, wages and pension reform were on the table.

Olympia needs to make the same sacrifices that Washington businesses are making. Accomplish more with less, reduce wages, benefits and eliminate the least-productive jobs.

For Becker Trucking, our customer base is local. We can't just pick up and leave the state. More importantly, we have raised our families here and are invested in the community. I want to grow the business and hire new employees. All I ask is that lawmakers become advocates for small business instead of adversaries.