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CONTACT SCBJ John Wolcott, Editor jwolcott@scbj.com Dave Clark, Assistant Editor dclark@scbj.com

Democracy is not a spectator sport; the business community needs to get involved with legislators

By Erin McCallum
President,
Enterprise
Washington

The ongoing test flights of the new Boeing 787 have been a magnificent display of American engineering and have showcased one of the greatest successes in American manufacturing.

Unfortunately, for residents and workers in Washington state the test flights are also a painful reminder of a missed opportunity, jobs lost and the economic hit our state will take from losing the second 787 production line to South Carolina.

With one in three jobs in our state connected to Boeing, news involving Boeing always makes the headlines.

Boeing isn’t the only one;
state’s other businesses in danger, too

But it’s not just about Boeing. The same ill-advised public policies and misguided lawmakers that drove Boeing out of our state are hurting thousands of small and medium sized businesses in Washington as well.

With the legislative session beginning this week, and lawmakers facing a $2.6 billion deficit, difficult decisions are going to be made. It is important that everyone with a stake in Washington’s private sector — both employers and employees — pay close attention to the issues being discussed in Olympia.

Analyze legislator’s votes,
do they support businesses?

If you hold a job in the private sector, it is important for you to find reliable resources that look past the sound bites and political spin and closely analyze how lawmakers vote on the issues that strengthen the business climate and support private sector jobs.

It is difficult for lawmakers to balance the needs of a healthy private sector and maintain the much needed services that government and the public sector provide.

Lawmakers must be reminded that it’s the private sector that generates revenue, and provides the jobs that create even more revenue to keep these services funded.

Without supporting and growing private sector jobs, government services are unsustainable. As an employee or owner of a private company, what happens at the legislative level in Olympia impacts your daily life in many ways. It can also affect your co-workers, friends, families, and the economic health of our communities and state for generations.

Business community must
participate and communicate

All members of the business community need to accept their responsibility to regularly communicate with their state legislators to remind them that when they write legislation, debate legislation and pass legislation, they have an enormous impact on Washington’s 450,000 private sector businesses and their employees.

Democracy is not a spectator sport and these elected officials need to hear from all of us.
It is time for our state lawmakers to understand if they do not support policies that encourage private sector growth and economic development, the small and medium sized businesses that are the foundation of our state’s economy will have no choice but to follow in Boeing’s footsteps.

Smaller businesses don’t leave,
they just close their doors

And that unlike Boeing, most small to medium sized business do not relocate due to the high cost of doing business, they simply close their doors.

As a business community we need to watch carefully and take an active role in the upcoming legislative session, because as the 2010 election season heats up, we must come together to ensure business-friendly Democrat and Republican lawmakers are elected to office.

Erin McCallum is president of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Enterprise Washington (www.enterprisewashington.org) and the Business Institute of Washington (www.businessinstitutewa.org), which both help companies and employees better understand how elected officials establish public policy, and to become more involved in the political process.