Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Today

Another busy day in the world of low finance. I've been trying to mentally work out the old budget but I still have all the medical bills to work on and little idea as to whether COBRA is in effect yet. Oh well....no one said poverty was easy.
In addition to that I was trying to get out some pushes for my favorite candidates. I am looking at the universe through the eyes of a small, really small, business this election period.
So far I have not grabbed a Republican and shook them. I think I deserve a medal for that one. You see, I, and a lot of small businesses, really, really need that stimulus package that is being held up in Congress by Guess Who. In the past years, i.e. Bush, small business loans, tax cuts and incentives have gone to....DRUM ROLL PLEASE....businesses doing over a million dollars. Now, I don't know about you, but that is no small business in my book. Large corporations divested themselves into small divisions and applied for small business loans. Having a cadre of accountants and lawyers, their papers sailed through the loan process and the rest of us are in resubmittal land or just plain..."we are laughing so hard we rolled under our desks" land. This stimulus package allows us, among other things, to make capital investment in equipment and take it off our taxes right now rather than depreciating it over 3 - 5 years. Doing that will allow us to do one other thing since we are not trying to recoup our investment: HIRE SOMEONE! In my case, I have the equipment picked out and it could mean a holiday job for someone with little to no skills. BUT...I don't dare risk the money.
I am also backing Alex Sink because she is offering tax cuts to small, small like me, businesses and reductions or rebates on property taxes. Property taxes on business property do not enjoy either the homestead exemption or the Save Our Homes cap. Our taxes have been increasing faster than rabbits on viagra. That is why you see so much abandoned business properties. The owners can't pay the taxes.
So that is the election from the point of a small business owner. I am going with the people I know will give me the break I need to stay in business.

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