Senator-Elect From the Farm Makes Small Firms a Priority
Jon Tester got into Montana politics about eight years ago because he thought that the state's 1997 energy deregulation policies were unfair to small companies. Last year, as Montana Senate president, he won enactment of legislation offering tax credits to make health insurance more affordable to companies with two to nine employees. Even after taking time off from campaigning to harvest grain for his organic farm, the fiscally conservative Democrat still narrowly beat out Republican incumbent Conrad Burns in last month's U.S. Senate race. Tester will be a member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
Tell me about the farm you run with your wife, Sharla, 12 miles west of Big Sandy, Mont.
The farm we run [growing lentils, barley, peas, and gluten-free grain] as a business adds value through organics. We also shut down a custom butcher shop that processed animals for the neighbors. Both things came handed to me generationally. My grandparents started the farm we operate in 1916. My dad and mom set up the custom butcher shop in the 1960s.
How has being a farmer and business owner shaped your view of small-business issues?
If you look at what has built this country, it has been small business and working families. They are critical to the economic success of the country. We're a mom and pop operation. Some of the things we experience are regulations set up more from a big-business standpoint. Small business is taxed with potential accounting measures set up for Enron and things like that.
What are some of the issues important to small business?
You have to make sure you're not putting undue burden on small business from a tax and regulation standpoint.
Does that burden include the Internal Revenue Service crackdown on small companies in order to close the tax gap?
If there's some tax fraud, it needs to be cracked down on. But tax problems don't come from the small-business community. They come from businesses locating offshore and things like that.
You are a former school board chairman. How do you think education relates to small business?
A well-trained workforce is critical to small-business success. What I hear from business is that it's hard to find help that meets their needs. Right now we're breaking ground on a technical college in Great Falls to facilitate a better workforce. You've got to have a good public education system so small-business owners, when they locate to an area, are confident their kids are getting the best education possible. I feel strongly about local control in school districts. Things like [the] No Child Left Behind [Act] take away local control, but a local school board knows best what a district needs.
How will the healthcare debate affect small-business owners?
Healthcare is very much a high priority for me. Healthcare is also a huge issue for business, both big and small. But that's an issue that hasn't been addressed at all yet from a small-business standpoint.
It looks as if the federal minimum wage will climb next year. What effect will that have on small companies?
I don't think that's going to impact small business in the least. It's so minimal you can't get good people at that wage level. If you are going to have someone stay with you any length of time, you are going to have to pay them more.
What advice do you have for other small-business owners?
You've got to be smart and deliver the kind of service and commodity that the customer wants. You have to be smart financially, and you can't overextend yourself. Make sure you have a sharp pencil.
This story appears in the December 11, 2006 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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