Area business owners urged to take active role in politics

December 5, 2011

Kane County Chronicle

By JONATHAN BILYK

BATAVIA – If business people in the Tri-Cities want their elected representatives in Washington, D.C., to support the policies the business people want, they will need to do more than just complain.

They will need to get active, said the man who leads the Chicago office for the nation’s chamber of commerce.

Thursday, Ben Taylor, director for the Great Lakes Region office for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, addressed a crowd of about two dozen business people gathered at Batavia City Hall.

The breakfast event, hosted by the Batavia Chamber of Commerce, was designed to offer local business owners, executives and other chamber members a chance to gain some insight into the doings in Washington from the regional representative of the national chamber.

Taylor acknowledged that business people typically are consumed with running their businesses and  have little time for politics.

But with a wide array of issues related to taxation and regulation pending in Washington, Taylor said the U.S. Chamber is urging its members to make certain their representatives in Congress and elsewhere know what they want from their government.

“You need to make time for advocacy,” Taylor told the gathering. “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu, as they say.”

Taylor presented the chamber gathering with a list of issues the U.S. Chamber believes the federal government should address to increase the chances of an economic recovery.

The list included steps to roll back or thwart new regulations on matters related to finance, health care, labor relations and the environment.

“People ask why businesses aren’t investing, why aren’t they expanding?” Taylor said. “It’s because when they do, they get whacked by a government agency.”

He said business groups should push Congress and others in the federal government to promote new domestic energy production, including ending a backlog of electricity generating projects stalled by regulatory review.

And he said business groups should push for new spending on transportation projects, which could be “revenue neutral,” as it could be paid back through “user fees” and charges levied against those seeking to extract domestic natural gas and oil.

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