Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 7, Issue 3, March 2003

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Merchants forming citywide small business lobbying group

By CLAYTON PARK

The board of the Aurora Avenue Merchants Association recently announced plans to form a citywide group to lobby local politicians on issues concerning small business.

The political action committee will be known as the Seattle Small Business Coalition, says merchants association director Faye Garneau.

"Seattle is not friendly to small business," says Garneau, in explaining the reasons for forming the PAC. "We'll be seeking to educate people who are running for office in the city as to the value of small business."

Garneau said while the Aurora group has agreed to help launch the Seattle Small Business Coalition, the goal of the PAC, which will be independent of the merchants association, is to represent small businesses throughout the city.

"We have discovered in working with different departments of the state and city that there are people involved in decision making who really don't understand small businesses, nor do they appreciate their value," Garneau said.

While large corporations such as Boeing and Microsoft grab most of the attention, Garneau notes that small businesses actually provide the majority of jobs, both here in this state as well as nationally.

Yet the needs of small businesses, in many ways, are quite different from large companies.

Take paperwork for example. A big company can devote entire departments of employees to process bills, payroll and taxes as well as keep up with the many federal, state and local regulations, which are constantly changing.

Small business owners, on the other hand, usually have to do it all themselves in addition to running their businesses, Garneau says.

"Most of our elected officials have never been in business for themselves," says Garneau. As a result, "they don't seem to respect us or the fact that we provide jobs and tax revenue."

The Seattle Small Business Coalition is currently in the process of getting set up and applying for non-profit status.

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