Last week, the Seattle City Council, in a historic voted, passed a new city-wide standard ensuring that workers will have access to paid sick days. The vote tally was a resounding 8-1, a testament to the broad support the proposal garnered from key stakeholders in the community – including local small business owners.
Category Archives: Sam Blair
Small Businesses Oppose Mandatory E-Verify as Job-Killer
Ahead of a scheduled mark-up of H.R. 2885, a proposal that would mandate the use of the controversial E-Verify employment verification system by every employer in the country, small business owner David Borris, owner of Hel’s Kitchen Catering in Northbrook, IL spoke at a press event outside the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on September 14Continue reading “Small Businesses Oppose Mandatory E-Verify as Job-Killer”
Rate Review Victory for Consumers, Small Businesses
New rules for health insurance rate increases took effect on September 1st. By giving consumers access to more information about why insurers are raising their rates – and whether experts deem the increases reasonable – the new rules aim to put downward pressure on health insurance premiums.
Association Health Plans: Good or Bad for Small Business?
Changes are finally coming to states’ health insurance marketplaces. For small businesses, these changes can’t come soon enough. New rules prohibiting discrimination and strengthening oversight of rate increases will protect small businesses from rate shocks. A guaranteed essential benefits package will provide assurance of a minimum level of coverage. And new state insurance exchanges willContinue reading “Association Health Plans: Good or Bad for Small Business?”
Main Street Takes on Wall Street…And Wins!
Big bank lobbyists have been putting on a full-court press in Washington, D.C. to roll back components of the financial overhaul passed last year and free Wall Street to go back to the “business as usual” that led to the financial crisis in 2008. The bankers are gunning for the new Consumer Protection Bureau andContinue reading “Main Street Takes on Wall Street…And Wins!”
On Tax Day, Time to Tell Corporations that the Game of Tax Dodgeball is Over
This year Uncle Sam pushed Tax Day back to April 18, giving us all a three-day tax filing holiday. It’s almost enough to make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. Until, that is, you hear about GE, which apparently is on extended vacation, paying essentially nothing in taxes for 2010 despite raking in $5.1 billionContinue reading “On Tax Day, Time to Tell Corporations that the Game of Tax Dodgeball is Over”
Main Street Alliance Leader Testifies Against Rollback of Federal Health Law
On January 18, New Jersey Main Street Alliance leader Odette Cohen, a pediatrician and owner of Son Light Pediatrics in Willingboro, NJ jumped on a train down to Washington, DC to testify at a hearing on the proposed rollback of the Affordable Care Act. “The health care law throws a series of lifelines to smallContinue reading “Main Street Alliance Leader Testifies Against Rollback of Federal Health Law”
Health Insurer Lobbying, Sopranos Style
It’s been public knowledge for a while now that the health insurance industry secretly funneled money to the US Chamber of Commerce to fund its smear campaign against health care reform in 2009. What we didn’t know, though, was just how much money. Now, thanks to some good investigative reporting by Bloomberg News, we do.Continue reading “Health Insurer Lobbying, Sopranos Style”
$75 Million: For the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, A Small Price to Pay for an Election
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been all over the airwaves recently–and not just with its hefty ad buys targeting candidates in the fast approaching November elections. Last week, the Chamber earned a wave of critical press when the story broke that it was funneling donations from international corporations and overseas affiliates into the sameContinue reading “$75 Million: For the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, A Small Price to Pay for an Election”
Small Business Owners Use Their Stories to Educate Public on Health Care Reform
September 23 was an important day for health care–and an important day for small businesses. Exactly six months after the enactment of the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act (PPACA), September 23 was the date on which a range of new insurance protections took effect. Across the country, small business owners from The Main StreetContinue reading “Small Business Owners Use Their Stories to Educate Public on Health Care Reform”