Merchants Look for Solutions to Small Business Challenges at Buchwald Forum
By Janine Bowen
Dozens of local merchants and employees turned out early Tuesday morning in Mount Kisco to participate in a small business forum where they discussed the challenges they face and possible solutions.
The two-hour roundtable, hosted by Assemblyman David Buchwald at the Mount Kisco Public Library, addressed issues such as the high cost of living, the effect of rising minimum wage and affordable child care.
“The biggest goal we have is to develop a dialogue both across businesses and between business and government and understanding what the shared challenges we face [are] when it comes to growing our economy,” Buchwald said.
One of the biggest dilemmas many small business owners face is Westchester’s high cost of living. Many in attendance said they were concerned that current employees and potential workers are moving elsewhere because they can’t afford to live in the county, where the median price of a home is about $600,000. Business owners mentioned that the cost of living is not only causing them to lose employees but money as well.
“For every one of those folks who commutes in from Dutchess…or Connecticut…when they go home at night, they take their paychecks with them. And they buy their groceries, and they take their dry cleaning, and they buy their cars someplace else instead of Westchester,” said Kim Jacobs, executive director of Community Capital New York, a nonprofit organization that lends money to small merchants.
Some participants suggested that government should focus on building affordable housing and lowering taxes to retain and attract people to the county and prevent young adults who are just entering the work force from leaving.
In addition to cost of living, the expense of child care in the county was discussed at length. Dawn Meyerski, who will become the new program director of the Mount Kisco Child Care Center in January, said many employees don’t earn enough to put their children in day care.
“If you want your employees to show up every day and be focused on their jobs, they need to know their kids are safe,” Meyerski said. “Without child care, all business will crumble.”
She recommended that government increase child care subsidies so that the struggling child care providers as well as parents can benefit.
The role of government in small business was another hot topic during the meeting. Several business owners expressed frustration at the escalating minimum wage, and claimed that tax incentives are complicated and fail to offer enough to counter the new financial burden. The state’s minimum wage is set to rise to $8 an hour for next year and to $9 an hour in another two years.
“I’m better off on the phone selling my services than playing the Albany game and trying to figure out what [tax incentives] I qualify for,” said Maid Brigade owner Gary Murphy. “If I counted on the state for my business, I’d be out of business.”
Buchwald acknowledged that bridging the gap between local government and small business owners is an important challenge that must be met.
“People don’t view government as a full partner and we very much need to make sure that government agencies are understanding the burdens that they’re placing on small businesses,” he said.
The meeting concluded as business hours began and many of the attendees had to head to work, but Buchwald said that the first of what he expects to be many small business forums went well.
“I think we very much succeeded at talking about a host of issues that affect small business owners and professionals… [while] also recognizing the challenges,” Buchwald said.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
