Washington Business Fall 2016 | Washington Business | Page 24

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AWB Crosses State on Small Business Outreach Tour
From Port Angeles to Pullman, Colville to Bellevue, AWB traveled
the state this summer to meet with small businesses as we craft a
legislative agenda to bring to the Legislature in 2017.
Brian Mittge
Small businesses are the heart of AWB and the state’s economy. The needs of small businesses will
also be at the heart of the legislative work AWB brings to the Legislature in 2017 — and a 15-stop tour
across the state ensures that small businesses had a chance to tell AWB their stories.
From a packed banquet hall in Port Angeles to a relaxed chat over lunch in Colville, a few things became clear
during AWB’s cross-state series of 15 small business listening sessions with hundreds of employers this summer.
First, small-business owners are the energetic engines of growth in Washington, with a spirit of entrepreneurship
and creative problem-solving.
Second, they face serious challenges that are remarkably similar in every corner of the state:
Workforce. Health care costs. A regulatory environment that defaults to finding employers at fault.
As AWB prepares for the 2017 legislative session, what the Government Affairs
team heard at these meetings will be front and center in AWB’s legislative agenda
and in testimony before lawmakers.
at a glance

health care
AWB met with hundreds of smallbusiness owners and operators during a
two-month, 15-stop tour that crisscrossed
Washington this summer. AWB will
compile a report from the tour and will
use the information gathered to craft a
2017 legislative agenda.
The Small Business Outreach Tour met
with employers in: Aberdeen, Bellevue,
Colville, Ellensburg, Everett, Kennewick,
Mount Vernon, Olympia, Pullman, Port
Angeles, Spokane, Tacoma, Vancouver,
Wenatchee and Yakima.
Among the many concerns and issues,
a few topics kept coming up: the cost of
health care is rising as access and benefits
are decreasing; there is widespread
difficulty finding a skilled and trained
workforce; and the attitude from the
Department of Labor & Industries is often
suspicious toward business, with a “how
do you get business” versus a “work with
business” attitude.

24 association of washington business

Linda Haglund of the Wenatchee Downtown Association said her members are
struggling to find affordable health care and insurance.
“They are brave souls who start a small business now,” she said during AWB’s visits to
her Central Washington community in June.
Others agreed, citing decisions by insurers to pull out of rural markets entirely. Those
few insurers that rem ain are increasing rates by 20 percent a year in some cases.