Turner: Stop the Tax Hike on Small Businesses & Working Americans

Congressman Bob Turner (NY-09) joined colleagues around the country in holding a "Stop the Tax Hike" event in Brooklyn to send a message to President Obama that the state of the economy is unacceptable with the national unemployment rate remaining above 8%, and to emphasize that raising taxes on small businesses would only serve to make things worse.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, failure to extend current income tax rates and deal with the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) will increase taxes on small businesses and working Americans by $4.6 trillion over ten years and $232 billion in 2013 alone.

Turner, met with the Brighton Beach Business Improvement District and small business owners in Brooklyn to discuss the state of the economy and how a tax increase would affect their businesses and an already above average local unemployment rate.

"Our country has been experiencing the longest stretch of high unemployment since the Great Depression. The last thing we should do is raise taxes on the economic sector that creates the most jobs. We must provide economic certainty by acting to stop the tax hike now by extending the current income tax rates," Turner said.

"Brooklyn and Queens are still experiencing unemployment well above the national average, and a tax increase in January 2013 will not help those still unemployed get back to work."

According to the NYS Department of Labor, Brooklyn's unemployment rate rose to 11% from 9.7% a year ago, well above the national unemployment rate.

Turner met with Brooklyn job creators to get a first-hand update about the real world impact that the current trend in Washington is having on the individuals on the front lines of the American Dream. Standing on Brighton Beach Avenue in front of businesses, Turner discussed what he had been hearing from business owners.

"I have been speaking with local small business owners and they are rightfully frustrated with President Obama's inability to understand how this tax hike will hamper their ability to grow and create jobs. In June, for the first time in 44 months, small businesses cited taxes above poor sales as the single most important problem they are facing today," the Congressman said.

Turner talked about how easy it is to recognize that taxing a businesses already struggling with the current tax rate is not the answer.

"It's simple logic," he said. "Economic uncertainty makes businesses wary of making investments and growing. Raising taxes will only increase their skepticism because it will take time to understand how they will affect their bottom line. We need to provide small business owners with a sense of stability and confidence, not fear of excessive taxation, so that they can grow and create jobs."

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