In Oklahoma, 99% of small businesses employ fewer than 100 workers. Seventy-five percent employ less than ten. These small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy.
As a member of the Small Business Committee, Fallin has served as an active advocate for these small businesses and their employees. While working on the committee, Mary has supported small business tax cuts and opposed unfunded mandates and unnecessary government regulation. As ranking member of the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, she used her leadership position to highlight the damage done to small businesses by skyrocketing gas prices. Fallin also passed legislation to help underprivileged women get business counseling and assistance as they move into the professional world.
Mary's work on behalf of small businesses extends beyond her days as a Congresswoman. As lieutenant governor, she created "Small Business Day" at the Capitol, pushed for creation of the Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Act, served on Governor Keating's Cabinet as Small Business Advocate and helped countless small business owners with a variety of issues important to their future.
Fallin has received the support of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) as well as an award from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recognizing her work to promote an environment friendly to business and economic growth.
As a member of the Small Business Committee, Mary will continue to work on federal issues critical to the future of small business. She has been an active supporter of policies that:
Provide Better Health Care Options for Small Businesses and their Employees
- Industry associations should be allowed to pool together resources to offer Association Health Plans. This would give small business the same kind of purchasing power and coverage options that larger businesses already enjoy. It would help lower costs, eliminate administrative inefficiencies, and provide more flexiblity in coverage.
- Medical Savings Accounts (MSA's) can effectively provide a cheaper health care option by combining tax-free savings accounts with a higher deductible health insurance plan. Excessive restrictions on MSA's have prevented small businesses from benefitting fully from them. We should expand the number of MSA's allowed nationally and lower the required deductible from $1,650 to $1,000 for an individual plan and from $3,300 to $2,000 for a family plan. These changes would make MSA's more attractive to employees and employers alike
Permanently Repeal the Death Tax
- Death should not be a taxable event. The death tax can be devastating to small businesses that are often rich in assets but poor on cash. Permanently repealing the death tax will help ensure family-owned businesses can be passed from one generation to the next.
New Tax Incentives for Job-Creating Investments
- High taxes create a disincentive for entrepreneurs, the very people who create and run small businesses. To ensure the continued viability of existing business and promote development of new business, we must reduce the tax burden and make more money available to create jobs.
Simplifying Taxes for Small Business
- Too many small businesses expend valuable resources complying with burdensome and confusing IRS regulations. During her first term in office, Mary co-sponsored multiple pieces of legislation that would simplify and streamline the tax code.
Continue Lawsuit Reform Efforts
- Small businesses are particularly vulnerable to frivolous lawsuits, and they often lack the resources to defend themselves.
- The federal government has made strides in the area of small business but we need to expand on the success of efforts such as the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, The Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act and the Class Action Fairness Act. We should also expand the general availability of arbitration and other dispute resolution alternatives.
Congress is working on several of these initiatives, but it working too slowly. Mary Fallin will continue to push House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to bring real reforms to the floor, oppose plans to enact job killing tax hikes and reject any agenda that will hurt either small businesses or their many employees.