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Small businesses say tax-cut extension won't spur hiring
Dec 8, 2010

"They've got a noose around small business," said Schulman, founder of Northbrook, Illinois-based Green Planet Bottling..."I've got no money to reinvest."

Foremost, there must be substantial moves to improve small companies' access to capital at a time when banks are still reluctant to lend...he won't be enticed to hire new employees now based on the prospect of better tax returns in the future.

Schulman agrees there are still too many moving parts in the current economy to prompt significant capital outlays for his business. The value of his home - among his largest assets - dropped 30 percent during the recession. Meanwhile, Green Planet Bottling is facing higher healthcare costs and the first of his two teenage children is set to head off to college next year.

"Why would I want to invest money in a down market unless I know it's close to being an up market?" said Schulman. "I'm still not hiring anybody. They got to take the noose off of me."

John Jordan, a long-time Washington-based publicist...said paying higher taxes would not have influenced his business decisions in the coming year.

"I don't gain or go after clients, or try to reach retainers with an eye toward marginal tax rates. You do what you gotta do. You don't worry about running the tax numbers."

"We're focused on the long term in terms of growing the business, so a change in the tax rate is not going to alter what I need to do for competitive and strategic reasons to grow the business," said Bolotsky, 47, who declined to share financials.

Weltman, herself the owner of two small businesses, favors longer-term solutions that will remove the uncertainty plaguing many small companies. She supports making permanent extensions of the tax relief at all income levels and longer-term tax reform.