Written by: Matt Spillane
Citizens across the country are concerned about the nation’s high unemployment rate, and those concerns, which are undoubtedly shared by many Lewisboro residents, are being heard loud and clear by the town’s political delegates.
Lewisboro’s representatives at the county, state and federal levels recently spoke to The Ledger about their goals and priorities for the next year, and employment was their first topic of discussion.
“The number one theme, of course, is job creation in our Hudson Valley and across the United States,” Congresswoman Nan Hayworth, 19th District, said this week.
Ms. Hayworth said that there are a number of ways in which she and her colleagues are working to promote job creation.
“We want to bring the federal government down to the right size,” she said, “by cutting spending in the right ways.”
In addition to cutting spending, Ms. Hayworth said that it is crucial to construct “an economic climate that is welcoming to business.”
“We need to make sure that our job creators — the small businesses — are not excessively burdened,” she said.
That can be accomplished, Ms. Hayworth said, by scaling back rules and regulations that hamper small businesses. As an example of how she is helping to do that, she noted this past spring’s repeal of part of President Barack Obama’s health care reform law: an April bill repealed a provision that would have required small businesses to file 1099 forms for purchases of at least $600.
“They affect small businesses disproportionately,” Ms. Hayworth said of regulations such as the 1099 provision. “They [small businesses] don’t have big departments to deal with these things.”
At the state level, Senator Greg Ball, 40th District, is advocating for immediate action; the state legislature does not return to session until January, but Mr. Ball said he has asked Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state legislators to consider a one-week special session in September or October that would be held specifically for the topic of job creation.
“When it comes to job creation I don’t believe that we’ve moved forward aggressively enough,” he said last week.
Mr. Ball said he is taking several steps to tackle unemployment, including creating a “One Stop Career Center” Web site that will offer help with résumé writing, filing for unemployment insurance and finding information about job fairs and other workshops. The site is set to launch on Sept. 30. (READ MORE [3])
