Elizabethtown – Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett today toured the business district of Elizabethtown, meeting with merchants and business owners listening to their concerns and explaining his plan to improve small businesses.

“It is time for small businesses to have someone on their side in Harrisburg,” said Corbett. “For far too long, state government has been an adversary to job growth.”

Tom Corbett’s plan to grow small business in Pennsylvania focuses on helping business owners and cutting through the red tape that often stands in the way of growth. Some highlights of the plan include simplifying the tax code, instituting regulatory flexibility for small businesses and repealing the Inheritance Tax.

“Small business owners are dealt too many roadblocks when trying to grow their business,” said Corbett.  “They are heavily burdened by the costs of government regulation and excessive paperwork. That is why I want to change that as Pennsylvania’s next governor.”

Corbett said that with more than 236,000 small businesses in Pennsylvania, they are an integral part of the state’s economy and critical to its success.  He said that small business accounts for more than 98 percent of Pennsylvania’s businesses and nearly 50 percent of the state’s private sector employees.

Tom Corbett has been personally visiting companies like the merchants in Elizabethtown, Lancaster County, to learn firsthand the concerns of business owners.

After meeting with a number of the small business owners along Market Street, Corbett spoke with them about the importance of keeping jobs in Pennsylvania and making sure we see growth in our jobs market. 

 “I believe it is time to restore the commonwealth’s rightful position in the global marketplace by partnering with entrepreneurs and business leaders to build job creation policies that will secure Pennsylvania’s future,” said Corbett.

 “We need to encourage job creators like the men and women who own businesses in  Elizabethtown to grow and invest in Pennsylvania,” said Corbett. “It is critical to put money back in the hands of small business owners so they can hire more workers and expand.”

The highlights of the plan include:

• Designate a Small Business Advocate within the Department of Community and Economic Development to help small businesses by managing cross-agency coordination of small business advocates and programs.
• Streamline and simplify the tax code and compliance process. This would cut some of the red tape that often forces employers, tax preparers and payroll services to make multiple tax filings of the same information.
• Develop a Small Business Portal to consolidate the collection and reporting of all wage reporting into a single business portal.
• Instituting regulatory flexibility for small business to give small business owners a voice when regulations are formulated.
• Grow investing opportunities by ensuring consistency between state and federal laws to encourage small businesses growth and job creation in Pennsylvania.
• Repeal the Inheritance Tax, also known as the “Death Tax,” to save many small businesses and family farms.

Visit www.tomcorbettforgovernor.com to learn more about Tom Corbett’s plan for small businesses and his plan to revitalize Pennsylvania’s economy.

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Paid for by Tom Corbett for Governor