Eighty-one percent of small business owners in SBAM?s Small Business Barometer survey said the state should cut spending versus only nine percent who favor tax and fee increases. Ten percent of respondents suggested a mix of spending cuts and tax hikes.
?Small business owners have responded to the economic slowdown by cutting expenses and they expect no less from state government,? said SBAM Vice President Government Relations Barry Cargill. ?No one relishes budget cuts. But I think it?s significant that small business owners support cuts in all kinds of government spending ? even to state programs that directly or indirectly benefit the small business economy: economic development, revenue sharing and employment services. Our members don?t want to gore someone else?s ox ? they are willing to accept their share of the budget cutting pain that we all will have to endure.?
Survey participants were read a list of eight major state government expenses, including K-12 education, higher education, health care, mental-health services, public assistance, roads, public safety and corrections, and general government operations.
For each area, respondents were asked if they would support major cuts, minor cuts, or no cuts in funding in order to address the state?s budget deficit. Overall, the results show nearly universal support for cuts in the costs of running the government. Ninety-five percent of those surveyed would cut spending on general government operations, with 59 percent supporting major cuts.
Most small business owners would also make cuts to a second tier of programs including public assistance, economic development, revenue sharing, and employment services. For these programs, support for budget cutting ranged between 68 percent and 76 percent. Public assistance led the group with a total of 76 percent of small business owners supporting budget reductions. However, most of those supporting reductions in these programs preferred minor rather than major cuts.
Support for cuts in other program areas was weaker. A slim majority ? between 50-55 percent ? supported spending reductions for public safety and corrections, higher education, mental health services, and roads. The least amount of support reported for any kind of cuts was for K-12 education, where only 41 percent of small business owners supported budget cutting. Medicaid cuts were also opposed by a majority, although by a slim margin.
