Small Business

By Vern L. Williams

"For Lease" signs are on every piece of commercial property in Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park. This indicates just how many Small Businesses we have lost in less than two years.

We must take steps to help and get our Small Businesses back in business. Small business creates about 60% to 80% of the jobs and commerce in our cities and in this country.

We must reduce or eliminate all of the city fees for a period of two years to give Small Businesses a chance to stay in business or start a new business. Every business that we can prevent from closing their doors or every new business we can help get started either stops the loss of jobs or creates new jobs and spending in this city.

Increased sales tax from new business spending and the sales tax from the newly employed people should offset the dollars lost.

Increase the 5% preference bid limit for local companies so that the city can award more contracts to companies within the city. Keep our dollars here so that the dollars can be spent over and over in this community.

The city must find ways to help its citizens and its companies. I realize that the city must have money to operate on but these are desperate times and we must realize that helping our city is accomplished by helping its citizens. Every "For Lease" sign you see equals at least one job lost and most likely multiple jobs lost.