Paul McGhee on Small Businesses

By Paul McGhee

Paul McGhee's candidacy is about putting people first, and this plan puts small business owners before unnecessary bureaucracy.

Owning a business is hard work and it takes a lot of planning and persistence to make it prosper. One of the most difficult aspects of running a business in Cincinnati is the amount of bureaucratic paper work and needless "red tape" that slows down assertive and ambitious entrepreneurs. In order to make Cincinnati a more "business friendly" town, we must make the process of starting and maintaining a business easier.

I have a simple plan for making Cincinnati more accessible for small business owners. All of these changes are easily within the scope of a City Council willing to work in the interests of our entrepreneurs.

1. Tax Breaks

There are two areas where City Hall can help new small businesses in terms of taxation: income tax and property tax. I think we should offer a solution on both of these fronts. As these businesses work to establish their vision, they should have a period of time -- for example, three years -- where they pay no tax to the city on either their income or property. At the end of three years, they can be graduated back into paying full taxes. In those first years, however, when small businesses really struggle and need all the help they can get, the city would be wise to encourage their development and growth.

2. Consolidate Departments

The overabundance of red tape keeps small businesses small, because the owners are spending too much time trying to figure out complicated instructions handed out by City Hall. There are several independent departments that small businesses need to work with as they try to get themselves started. This process can be not only confusing, but time consuming. I understand it is important not to rush, but that does not mean we should make the process complicated.

Recently, I had to submit drawings for a project. These drawings were then circulated to several departments for approval -- and all of these departments are located at different addresses. The turn-around time is unbearable and unnecessary. Scheduling inspections is complicated because it requires contacting several different offices, going through their phone cues, leaving different messages, and so on.

These departments should be consolidated into one location with a smaller administration. Inter-departmental correspondence about applications can be expedited if everyone worked in one place. Also, the various departments, through consolidation, could share a secretarial staff. This means small businesses would have a one-stop for scheduling inspections. These simple changes really help those entrepreneurs working to improve our city. We might lose some administrators at City Hall through making this process smaller and simpler, but my candidacy is not about working in the interests of government. My candidacy is about putting people first, and this plan puts small business owners before unnecessary bureaucracy.