Western Small Business Owners Urge Lawmakers to Protect National Parks During Fiscal Cliff Talks
Small business CEOs say protection of parks, public lands important for economic growth; urge White House, Congress to defend investments before and after fiscal cliff negotiations
WASHINGTON, D.C. Small business owners from Western states today sent a letter to the White House urging President Obama and Congress to maintain protections for America̢???s public lands as they negotiate a solution to the fiscal cliff, because they believe the preservation of the nation's natural assets is essential to small businesses financial success and that of local economies.
The letter, which includes the signatures of 76 CEOs from tech, healthcare, real estate and other growing western industries, states: Protecting our national parks, forests, monuments, and public lands helps ensure that Western communities, businesses and entrepreneurs have a competitive advantage in the global marketplace.
This sentiment is reflected by polling Small Business Majority released earlier this year of Western small businesses, which found that nearly half of small business owners in the states surveyed agree access to parks, public lands and other outdoor opportunities is a large part of the reason they live and do business in their state. Additional polling Small Business Majority released in November found the vast majority of small businesses are very concerned about the fiscal cliff and the various spending cuts that could go into effect if lawmakers don't resolve the issue before the end of the year.
Today's letter comes on the heels of a new study, West is Best, from nonprofit economic research group Headwaters Economics, which finds that the West's popular national parks, monuments, wilderness areas and other public lands offer its growing high-tech and services industries a competitive advantage. This is a key reason why states in the West have outperformed the rest of the U.S. economy in key measures of growth, employment, population and personal income, during the last four decades.
The Headwaters study found that Western non-metropolitan counties with more than 30 percent of federal public land protected as national parks, monuments, wilderness areas and other similar designations increased jobs by 345 percent over the last 40 years. By comparison, counties with no protected federal public land increased jobs by 83 percent. As indicated in this info graphic, job growth in the American West is now largely driven by services industries such as healthcare, finance, real estate and high-tech, instead of traditional extractive industries such as oil and gas and mining.
To view the letter, visit http://www.smallbusinessmajority.org/_docs/letters/121812-CEO-letter-to-White-House.pdf
About Small Business Majority
Small Business Majority is a national small business advocacy organization, founded and run by small business owners to focus on solving the biggest problems facing America's 28 million small businesses today. Since 2005, we have actively engaged small business owners and policymakers in support of public policy solutions, and have delivered information and resources to entrepreneurs that promote small business growth and drive a strong, sustainable economy. We are a team of more than 30 working from our 11 offices in Washington, D.C. and 9 states, with a network of more than 45,000 small business owners and more than 2,000 business organizations, along with a formal strategic partnership program of more than 125 business organizations, enabling us to reach more than 500,000 entrepreneurs. Our extensive scientific polling, focus groups and economic research help us educate and inform policymakers, the media and other stakeholders about issues including taxes, healthcare, access to capital, entrepreneurship, workforce development, clean energy and immigration.