Julia Jamieson's blog

As Fairfax, Va., small business owner Mike Brey prepares to close the books on 2012, he’s also starting to make expansion plans. But he hasn’t sealed the deal on his two new Hobby Works stores yet — largely because of growing economic uncertainty as we race toward the edge of the “fiscal cliff.”

The politically charged debate over high-income tax cuts is reaching a fever pitch, and the question on everyone’s lips is whether small businesses’ hiring ability will suffer if these cuts expire. Scientific opinion polling released last week shows what real small business owners think, and it might surprise you. The majority of small employers in the poll — more of whom identify as Republican than Democrat, an important distinction given the partisan nature of this debate — believe allowing tax cuts for the wealthiest 2 percent to expire at the end of the year is the right thing to do in light of our budget crisis.

They’ve been in the spotlight for months, and the attention small businesses got during the first presidential debate sent them into the stratosphere in terms of media coverage. So let’s try to answer the question a lot of people are asking: who are these small business owners everyone’s talking about?

As we move beyond the recession, it becomes increasingly apparent that our smallest businesses are the ones putting America back to work. These hardworking entrepreneurs deserve a chance to tell legislators in Washington what kinds of policies are going to help them grow and flourish. And that’s exactly what they got this week, when Small Business Majority flew 14 entrepreneurs from 11 states out to D.C. for their first annual network council trip.

Here’s a riddle for you. What did the small business owner do when she opened the letter from her health insurer. If it’s Lynn Petrazzuolo we’re talking about, she did the happy dance. Because in that envelope was a $1428 rebate check from her health insurance carrier, who was reimbursing Lynn because it had failed to spend her premium dollars the way the new federal healthcare law requires.

In Colorado, Main Street businesses are working to rebuild the state’s economy. These entrepreneurs are doing all they can to hire, grow and move their businesses forward. For their wellbeing and that of Colorado’s economic future, it’s important they have ample opportunity to innovate—particularly in the energy efficiency arena, as indicated by a report released Wednesday.

Michigan small business owners overwhelmingly support increasing the state’s renewable energy standard to 25 percent by 2025, according to opinion polling released by Small Business Majority. Nearly eight in 10 (79 percent) Michigan small businesses support setting standards that require utilities to meet a certain percentage of energy demand through renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and bio-fuels (for example, requiring a 25 percent target in renewable fuels by 2025).

John Arensmeyer

Lawmakers passed up a golden opportunity recently to shake the recession’s effects and put American small businesses back on the hiring track. Congress has a lot more work to do this summer if they plan to support entrepreneurship. Small businesses across the nation are poised for growth, and now is the time to facilitate their expansion by passing smart jobs legislation and helping them access capital.