Gov. Chris Gregoire has directed state officials to make some changes to help small business, she said today.
Gregoire said she signed an executive order this morning to make the state sales tax system more easy to understand and to make licenses and registration for businesses easier to deal with.
She said she’s also directed officials to seek advice from small businesses on handling the federal funds for business credit and for developing a plan to boost exports.
“The way out of this recession is creating jobs, and no one is better at creating jobs than small business owners,” Gregoire said. “I’ve reached out to dozens of small businesses across the state and they all tell me the same thing. They want more room to be successful by making state processes as simple as possible. This executive order brings a new level of simplicity to current and future business owners, while expanding our effort to reduce business costs.”
Gregoire said she has directed the Department of Labor and Industries, the Department of Revenue and the Employment Security Department to review practices, taxes and rate structures with the goal of reducing state imposed costs for small businesses.
The order also requires revenue officials to work in consultation with small businesses, local governments and others evaluate ways to reduce the complexity of the state’s sales tax system.
“I want our business owners spending less time understanding what tax rate they should pay, and more time ensuring their business succeeds,” Gregoire said.
Gregoire also said she has directed the Department of Commerce to work with her regulatory officials to consolidate the variety of small business licensing, registration and certification guides into one resource, and develop new strategies to streamline or eliminate regulatory processes and procedures.
The commerce department has been directed to work closely with small business owners to develop a plan for how to use the $19.7 million in federal funds available for small business credit.
“This program allows us to support a variety of programs to help in our economic recovery,” Gregoire said..”And with the guidance of our small business owners, we will ensure our share of this funding is used intelligently for the benefit of businesses and the economy.”
Officials at the departments of commerce and agriculture were also directed to incorporate small businesses into Gregoire’s state export initiative and to work closely with the Small Business Administration on helping them expand export sales.
To read the executive order, Click here
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