By Grace Gagliano; Bradenton Herald

Unemployment tax, health care and job creation are weighing heavily on the minds of small businesses in Manatee and Sarasota counties.

Congressman Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, held a joint meeting Monday with members of the Manatee and Sarasota chambers of commerce. His message to them about the federal budget was one they’ve heard for quite a while.

“When you look at these deficits,” Buchanan said, “the biggest issues in our area as a small business are jobs and the economy.”

Some of the estimated 60 business professionals in attendance at Gold Coast Eagle Distributing voiced specific issues the recession has brought their way, including the cost to fund unemployment compensation benefits by way of unemployment tax.

In Florida, the taxable wage base used to calculate unemployment taxes is $7,000. In March, a new law reduced the taxable wage from $8,500 to $7,000 until 2012 in an effort to help restore economic stability among small businesses.

Still, John Saputo, president of Gold Coast Eagle Distributing, argued that some who are collecting unemployment compensation are “unemployable” or make no effort to find work.

“I think 10 percent of the workforce is unemployable,” Saputo said. “There’s people who just don’t want to work. Thirty percent of the people who walk through the front door of this building can’t pass my drug test. I’ve had people say they can’t take the job we’ve offered them for another eight weeks because my unemployment doesn’t run out for another eight weeks.”

The tax rate for unemployment compensation is based on the business’s employee retention rate: The lower an employer’s turnover rate, the less it pays in unemployment taxes.

The unemployment tax rate ranges from a minimum of $25.20 to a maximum of $378 per employee.

The financial constraints small business are facing will require access to capital, Buchanan said.

“I can’t tell you how many business I run into that can’t get a loan or got a loan pulled,” Buchanan said.

“Four years ago, if you could fog a mirror (the banks) were running around trying to handout money to you, now they can’t give any money.”

Rick Fawley, principal of Fawley Bryant Architects, said he has concerns about how new health care reform may impact his firm over the next three to five years.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been a critic of the Obama administration’s health care reform, which is to take effect in 2014, as it requires employers with 50 or more workers to provide health care insurance or pay a fine. Small businesses have expressed concern that the bill will drive up insurance premiums due to new taxes on medical companies and the insurance sector.

“In a down economy, you get to a point where you’re no longer cutting into fat, you’re now cutting into the bone,” Fawley said. “There’s a morass of rules, regulations and innuendo that doesn’t allow us to plan effectively (for health care reform). This puts stress on the employer.”

The Obama administration argues that the Affordable Care Act will provide qualifying small businesses with tax credits of up to 50 percent to help lower the cost of providing insurance. It also will allow small businesses with fewer than 100 employees to shop for insurance in Exchange, which will give small businesses access to lower pricing structures typically offered to large businesses, according to health care.gov.

Still, Buchanan says health care will be a serious issue for the business community over the next several years.

“It’s a disaster,” Buchanan said. “I don’t think this is a great bill and we’re hoping we can repeal it and do something that makes sense.”