Kyle Jackson took over as Georgia state director of the National Federation of Independent Business in December. As such, he is responsible for all the group’s lobbying and advocacy at the Gold Dome as well as supporting its members.
The NFIB is the state and country’s largest advocacy organization dedicated to representing the interests of small employers. It has more than 350,000 members nationally and about 7,500 in Georgia.
“We are experiencing a period of member growth right now, driven in part by small business’ frustration with the misguided policies of the Obama administration and the need to stand up for free enterprise,” Jackson said.
“I’m passionate about small business because both of my parents were business owners,” Jackson added. “I have a deep appreciation for the hard work, dedication and risk-taking that goes into building a successful business. Small-business owners really represent the American dream.”
He talked about the federation and its mission:
Q: What does the NFIB do that other business groups don’t?
A: First and foremost, we look out for the small-employer community. We ballot our membership every year about the issues pending before Congress and the Georgia General Assembly, and it is the vote of our membership that determines if we get involved in an issue and on what side. I feel confident that when I advocate to the governor or the Legislature that I’m speaking truly on behalf of small business in Georgia.
Q: What are some of the key issues facing the Georgia NFIB?
A: Health insurance – dealing with rising costs and the federal law. Taxes – advocating for state reforms that foster growth in the small-business sector while fighting efforts in Congress to raise taxes on small employers. Regulatory reform – working with state leaders to lessen the regulatory burden on small employers and fighting harmful and unnecessary new regulations from the Obama administration.
Q: Which is the biggest?
A: Health insurance. Since the 1980s, small-business owners have cited the rising cost of insurance as the No. 1 challenge facing their business. Federal health care reform, misnamed the “Patient Protection Act,” puts more pressure on employers, not only from a mandate standpoint, but it does nothing to rein in the out-of-control costs driving premium increases. Instead, the law will punish employers with new requirements and taxes that will only inflame the problem.
NFIB is actively involved along with Georgia Attorney General [Sam] Olens and other state attorneys general in pursuing a lawsuit in federal courts on the grounds that the individual mandate violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Additionally, we recently launched a coalition called Stop the HIT to educate the public and lawmakers on the harmful effects of the new health insurance tax in the federal law. It is expected to cost $8 billion in 2014 and will reach $14.3 billion by 2018, further driving up costs in the health insurance market. In the meantime, we continue to pursue positive legislation to increase options for employers and their employees.
Q: What are some of the recent “victories” for NFIB?
A: Repeal of the federal 1099 provision in the federal health care law that would have required employers to track and report all expenditures over $600 in a given year to the Internal Revenue Service. This would have created a massive new paperwork and time mandate on employers, and repealing it was a major bipartisan victory in Congress.
At the state level, we had a great 2011 session that included passage of House Bill 47, which will give Georgia’s consumers in the individual marketplace the option to buy innovative, and in some cases less costly, insurance plans approved for sale in other states and vetted by our insurance commissioner.
Q: What’s on the agenda for the 2012 state legislative session?
A: Tax reform is certainly an important issue we’ll be engaged in. We have a real unemployment crisis in that we’ve borrowed nearly $700 million from the federal government to pay unemployment benefits. That money has to be paid back, and we have to wrestle with that as a state. Health insurance remains an important issue for NFIB. Georgia will be deciding if and how to design state-level insurance exchanges for small-business owners and their employees, and we are very much engaged in the issue.