The U.S. Senate has confirmed the nomination of Linda McMahon as U.S. Administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

The state budget process begins every two years with a spending proposal from the Governor of Ohio.  Governor Kasich unveiled his proposal earlier today in Columbus.

The Greater Cleveland Partnership (GCP) is more energized than ever to support your priorities through government advocacy.

The National Small Business Association (NSBA) is the country’s first small business advocacy organization and is celebrating its 80^th anniversary. Focused on federal advocacy and operating on a non-partisan basis, NSBA serves as a resource for America’s small business community in Washington, D.C.

An initiative proposing a Cleveland-only minimum wage increase was brought forward months ago, which would have phased in a $15-an-hour minimum wage (starting with $12 an hour in January 2018) while the rest of the state remained at $8.15.

The Greater Cleveland Partnership’s advocacy efforts are driven by our mission of mobilizing private sector leadership, expertise, and resources from businesses of all sizes to create attractive economic conditions that create jobs, grow investment, and improve the prosperity of our region. Our public policy priorities are driven by you and we work to provide a unified voice for the Northeast Ohio business community to our elected officials and regulators on key issues that are critical for business growth. In 2016, we enjoyed some significant victories for the business community locally and throughout Ohio.  We take great pride in serving as your voice and we look forward to continuing our shared work into the future.

In the waning days and hours of “lame duck” session many new initiatives bubbled up that would impact the business community and the Ohio General Assembly took some action on two crucial GCP priority issues, but work remains. 

State Regulations / Ohio Common Sense Initiative Survey

Since 2011, Ohio’s Common Sense Initiative (CSI) Office has promoted innovation and common sense regulation of Ohio’s businesses. The Executive Order creating CSI explicitly recognized that Ohio’s business community is a partner in the state’s success, so while regulations play an important role in promoting fair competition and protecting the public, they should do so in a way that also facilitates economic growth and opportunity.  And, two GCP/COSE members continue to serve on the CSI Small Business Advisory Council today.

In mid-November the Ohio Supreme Court ruled remote sellers—those with no physical presence in our state—will still be subject to the Ohio Department of Taxation imposing the commercial activity tax (CAT) on those companies that sell services or products to Ohioans. The CAT has been collected in Ohio for a little more than 10 years and the tax is levied for “the privilege of doing business in Ohio”, and applies to any taxpayer having substantial nexus with Ohio. 

On November 22, a federal judge in Texas issued a preliminary injunction against the Department of Labor’s (DOL) overtime rule which was set to go into effect December 1, and would have doubled the current threshold under which employees must be paid overtime.