American Paper Converting Operations Manager Brian Work, center, gives Congressman Sam Graves, R-Missouri, and Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler a tour of the Woodland plant with Comptroller Rich Rosentreter before the two members of Congress convened a small business roundtable discussion at the Woodland plant.
WOODLAND — Area small business owners told Southwest Washington Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler on Wednesday that uncertainty about future health care costs hampers their ability to expand and create jobs.
At a business roundtable at American Paper Converting at the Port of Woodland, Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, said she wanted to spend this recess period listening to the concerns of small business owners, especially in areas of double-digit unemployment like Cowlitz County.
"I'm really hopeful that you are the folks that are going to put more of those (unemployed) folks back to work," Herrera Beutler, a member of the House Small Business Committee, told the group of about a dozen.
Herrera Beutler was joined by Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., chairman of the House Small Business Committee.
Business owners also ticked off other delays to growth, including lag time in receiving U.S. Small Business Administration loans through banks, lengthy environmental permitting reviews and other bureaucratic red tape.
However, health care reform emerged as the biggest worry, especially for small business considering expansion. The Health Care law requires companies of 50 workers or more to provide workers with health insurance coverage or face federal fines.
"You're saying to us, 'Don't grow, and stay under 50'" employees, said Matt Todd of Entek Corp., a heating and ventilation contractor with offices in Longview and Vancouver.
Entek, which has fewer than 50 employees, is considering hiring more people, but company officials say they are hesitating because they don't know how much health care insurance costs will rise by adding employees.
"We're not moving forward until we know what that's going to mean," Entek representative Allan Shero said.
Terry Cole, owner of Longview-based Hamer Electric, said health care costs have risen by tens of thousand of dollars at his business over the last three years.
"I can't afford that. And what's going to happen is the health care I'm giving my guys now is going to go down," Cole said.
The future of health care reform is up in the air. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a constitutional challenge to the health-care plan, which Congress approved mostly along party lines in March 2010.
At the center of the debate is the individual mandate, which requires every individual to purchase health care insurance or face hefty fines. Opponents say the mandate is unconstitutional, but White House lawyers say it's necessary to pay for the health care overhaul.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the health-care bill this summer.
Herrera Beutler said she'd like to see the law repealed and find a different, market-based approach to paying for health care for all citizens. Herrera Beutler said she thinks Supreme Court justices could eliminate pieces or all of the legislation.
