Opinion: Local Main Street businesses offer Albany a venue for relief
There is a way to prime the state's sales tax pump and to keep money flowing to small businesses
Covid-19 has completely changed the way we all live.
But along with worrying about keeping themselves and their families healthy, thousands of small business owners across New York state are losing sleep over how to keep this virus from killing the businesses they have worked so hard to build.
At the same time, lawmakers in Albany are trying to craft a budget in the face of plunging revenues. Sales taxes, much of them generated by small business, brought in a whopping $73.6 billion last year. Our schools, as well as other vital government services, rely on these funds. When a business fails — and too many are on the precipice of failure right now — that sales tax revenue goes, too.