Washington Business Spring 2019 | Washington Business | Page 13

eye on business
Grassroots Power
Kris Johnson, AWB President
Hundreds of hair stylists and salon owners rallied at the
state Capitol early this year, offering political observers a
refresher course in the power of a grassroots movement.
They came to Olympia to speak out against legislation that
sought to severely restrict independent contractors, a proposal
that not only targeted hair stylists and cosmetologists but
dozens of other industries as well.
They packed a public hearing, with a line stretching out
the door onto the Capitol campus, and drew widespread
media attention.
In the face of the protest, lawmakers quickly backed away
from the parts of their proposal that explicitly targeted hair
dressers while vowing to continue pursuing other legislation
concerning independent contractors.
Mission accomplished?
Not quite. The cosmetologists were just getting warmed
up. Throughout the legislative session, they continued to
speak out on the other independent contractor bills as well
as a proposal to raise the business and occupation tax on
professional services.
This demonstration of democracy in action was one bright
spot in an otherwise challenging legislative session for
employers, particularly small businesses.
Gary Chandler, AWB’s vice president for government
affairs, said that in all his years serving in the Legislature and
later advocating on behalf of AWB members, he couldn’t recall
another legislative session so hostile to small businesses.
In addition to the proposals to restrict independent
contractors, lawmakers introduced bills to impose restrictive
scheduling requirements on employers, a new layer of
regulation that would have impacted restaurants and other
small businesses.
And there were numerous calls for new and higher taxes,
including a push to implement a capital gains tax for the
first time and the proposal to raise the B&O tax on services
by 67 percent.
Amid this environment, the grassroots movement was a
powerful reminder that when it comes to effecting change in
the Legislature, the stories of real people and real business
owners matter far more than data points and pie charts.
Tapping into the power of the grassroots is one of the
reasons AWB has been strengthening ties with local chambers
of commerce throughout the state.
A few years ago, we started the AWB-Local Chamber
Grassroots Alliance as a way to reach out to small-business
owners throughout the state, to inform them about
policies that will impact their business and to give them
an opportunity to speak out. The group now includes more
than 80 local chambers of commerce.
This session, when we wanted to question lawmakers about
their push to raise taxes at a time when the economy was
already booming, we reached out to our chamber partners.
And they responded. Full-page ads appeared in The
Spokesman-Review, Peninsula Daily News and The
Columbian noting the $4 billion growth in the state budget
and calling on lawmakers to live within their means.
The Spokane ad featured logos for AWB and Greater
Spokane Inc. The Peninsula Daily News ad included logos
from AWB, the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce
and several local businesses. And in Longview, The Daily
News ran a series of ads with similar messaging that featured
logos for AWB and the Kelso Longview Chamber, plus the
names of several local businesses that signed in support of
the message.
It was the first time AWB and local chambers had ever
done anything like this, but hopefully not the last.
As the cosmetologists reminded us this year, the best
recipe for effecting change is simply showing up and telling
your story.
spring 2019
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