By Paul J. Gough
Pennsylvania’s small businesses will soon get an additional voice in Harrisburg with the formation of a long-dormant commission that will meet for the first time next week.
The Department of Economic and Community Development has been putting the finishing touches on the Small Business Council, a group of small business and government leaders throughout Pennsylvania that plan to meet at least twice a year to advise the state. There are 12 members, appointed by the governor and legislative leaders for a two-year term. The commission’s first meeting will be at 10 a.m. April 19 in Harrisburg.
Members of the Small Business Council include Chris W. Brussalis, David C. Dickson, James Gallo, Norma Romero-Mitchell, Troy J. Harper, Martine L. Walzer, Sen. John Wozniak, Sen. Wayne Fontana, Ken Smith, John T. Galloway, Tina Pickett and Richard R. Stevenson as well as Department of Economic and Community Development Secretary George Cornelius.
It’s been a long, slow road to get to this point. The Small Business Council was first put into law in 1996 but no members were appointed nor was any meeting held. The statute authorizing the council was amended in 2004, but there was still no movement. There was also no mandate to meet.
“There wasn’t a lot of interest,” said Dee Kaplan, deputy secretary of the Business Assistance Office of the state Department of Economic and Community Development. That all changed in recent months. Kaplan credited Pennsylvania House Speaker Keith R. McCall, D-Carbon County, with reviving the council.
“Speaker McCall came in, God bless him, and told us, ‘I think that council needs to be meeting,’” Kaplan recalled. “He got real active in the formation and outreach. We were thrilled.”
The council is somewhat short on details. Kaplan and DECD have been working behind the scenes and speaking with the appointees ahead of the April 19 meeting. The appointees need to either have a background in small business, academic experience in small business or provides professional services to small business.
The state statute calls for the council to have three wide-ranging duties:
- Assist with the development of policies and regulations that affect small business.
- Provide advice relating to the nature of small business practices and problems.
- Provide a review of existing and proposed policies and regulations relevant to small business.
The commission’s first duty will be to pour through miles of existing and proposed policies and regulations that are relevant to small business. Kaplan said that will likely take up most of the first two-hour meeting in April.
“There is a lot of stuff there, pages and pages. We are culling through all of that. We are talking to every person in every department who has any regulatory responsibility,” Kaplan said. “We are asking, ‘Does this affect small business?’ If it does, are there any consequences or issues pertaining to small business that we need to know about?”
That regulatory focus may or may not be the sole focus of the council in the future. She said it isn’t clear yet what might take up the rest of the council’s energy.
“I have a feeling they’ll talk about (access to) credit and health care,” Kaplan said.
Brussalis is one of the governor’s appointees, as well as president and CEO of The Hill Group management consulting firm and an adjunct professor of management/policy at the Heinz College of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He acknowledges that the council’s primary charge is opaque but said that it’s an opportunity for the council to make an impact.
“The legislation’s pretty vague so it’s up to the council, I think, to shape its rule,” Brussalis said. “Of course, I don’t want to spend 80% of my effort on 20% of the things that have the least impact. I want us to spend our time on what will benefit small businesses. I think it’s up to us to define as a council what a role is.”
Brussalis said that his key issues are the costs of doing business in the commonwealth, especially health care insurance and taxes. He said it’s a good time for the council to begin to meet, as the economic crisis has brought more attention to small business as a driver of job growth and recovery.
“I think entrepreneurism is a very viable real option for some people who don’t have a lot of options available to them in a time like this,” Brussalis said. “I think this is an opportunity to birth and grow small business.”
Kaplan before going to Harrisburg worked for 25 years in the Philadelphia area including at the city’s Chamber of Commerce. She said that she’s been involved with small business for a long time, and said the DECD works hard to become a “good ombudsman” between small businesspeople and the state government.
From there, the commission’s work will be a book ready to be written. The council is only required to meet twice a year but Brussalis said that if there’s real value and results, he’s willing to meet as often as needed.
“As you can see, that (vision) is wide open,” Kaplan said. “That could really take off.”
This article is reprinted from the March-April edition of Dynamic Business, The Voice of PA Small Business. Get a copy at smc.org.
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