"I know that small businesses, like mine with 15 employees, don't always have time to travel to Topeka or attend many meetings, so the Small Business Council will operate as a virtual powerhouse to represent small employers with Kansas lawmakers," Martin-Smith said.

She is Kansas franchisee owner of Adecco, a personnel service firm with offices in Lawrence, Topeka, and Wichita. Martin-Smith is leading a number of initiatives to place added emphasis on small business issues considered by the state's most influential business organization.

Small Business Council Initiatives
The Kansas Chamber is redirecting the focus of its interactive newsletter, to be renamed The Small Business Advocate, to those issues of special importance to smaller employers. The newsletter will have a weekly interactive survey feature to allow small businesses to weigh in on the issues weekly when the 2006 Kansas Legislature is in session.

The Kansas Chamber also will be polling business operators throughout Kansas to determine those areas of the economy where Kansas is solid and those areas that could be improved. Some 98 percent of Kansas businesses are small businesses, responsible for creating the majority of new jobs across the state. The Chamber's scientific survey will also aid in identifying specific areas where Kansas lawmakers can make improvements to improve the business climate.

Small Biz Matters!
"Make no mistake about it," Martin-Smith said, "small business is important to making Kansas the best state in America to do business. And feedback from small employers will go a long ways towards shaping The Chamber's Jobs-First Agenda."

The Kansas Chamber's Chair Bill Thornton hails from a small business, too - MGP Ingredients in Atchison. Both Thornton and Martin-Smith, who also serves on The Chamber's overall Executive Committee and Board of Directors, are committed to positioning the state's largest business organization as a major statewide advocate for small employers.

Small Business Day at the Capitol
In addition to polling and real time communications on small business issues, The Chamber will be host for a Small Business Day at the Capitol in Topeka during the legislative session. It will be another opportunity for small employers to weigh in with lawmakers from across the state who are also focused on improving the small business environment for jobs growth.

The Chamber is also active in supporting candidates for elective office that support the tenants of free enterprise and who will support legislation to support small employers in Kansas. The Chamber coordinated more than $1 million in campaign contributions in the last election, targeted at pro-business candidates who support small business issues.

Electing More Pro-Business Lawmakers
These efforts to elect more Pro-Jobs Legislators have begun to pay off with a growing Legislative Business Caucus. And The Chamber has already begun to recruit candidates for the 2006 elections who are aligned with the goals of the Small Business Council. For the roster of pro-jobs legislators go to: http://www.kansaschamber.org/forms/advo3/V3Num25.htm

During the session, The Chamber will issue action alerts to inform small employers of pressing topics that are moving through the legislative process. Small business will be armed with information that they can use to help persuade their elected representatives to support pro-jobs legislation and defeat proposed laws that would be harmful to business.

Taking It To Decision-Makers
"We are going to roll up our sleeves and take a pro-employer and pro-enterprise message to lawmakers across Kansas who have just got to realize that small business is really the engine that powers the Kansas economy," added Martin-Smith. The legislative advocacy team at The Chamber is in high gear preparing pro-business legislation all the while it is vigilantly evaluating measures that could harm the economy.

Why is all this important to small business in Kansas? The answer partially resides in data compiled by the Small Business & Entrepreneurial Council. The council, like The Kansas Chamber, works to influence legislation and policies that help to create a favorable and productive environment for small businesses and entrepreneurship.

Why Kansas Needs To Get Better
Its annual competitive analysis shows how the states compare with each other in their policy environments for entrepreneurship. While, arguably, the Kansas business environment may be improving, much more progress needs to be made to make Kansas the best state in America to do business. The latest ranking from the council indicate that Kansas has room to improve if small business is to thrive here.

Small Business & Entrepreneurial Council
Small Business Survival Index
2005 State Rankings
(Ranked from the Friendliest to the Least Friendly Policy Environments for Entrepreneurship)

For the complete Small Business & Entrepreneurial Council's Small Business Survival Index report go to http://www.sbsc.org/Media/pdf/SBSI_2005.pdf.

Pro-Biz Leadership
The Chamber partners closely with a number of small business interests across Kansas to become a stronger force for business in the Capitol. Any small business with under 10 employees that is a member of its local chamber of commerce is eligible for free membership in The Kansas Chamber when the local chamber joins in the work of The Chamber Federation, which now totals more than 10,000 employers across Kansas. The vast majority is comprised of small employers, reflecting the makeup of businesses throughout Kansas.

The Chamber also leads coalitions of small business organizations on various issues of concern to smaller employers. In addition to The Chamber Federation, other partner organizations include the National Federation of Independent Business and the Wichita Independent Business Association. The Kansas Chamber also partners with the National Association of Manufacturers Small and Medium Manufacturer Department and the US Chamber of Commerce's Small Business Center.

Backing Up Advocacy With Facts
The Chamber's Small Business Council incorporates a number of empirical studies and hard data into the deliberative process to develop solutions for small Kansas employers. This includes a scientific survey of what is on the minds of small business operators throughout Kansas and studies, like the Small Business Survival Index of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, and weekly survey input from The Chamber's Small Business Advocate newsletter.

Small Business Showdown
Among the government topics of interest that the Small Business Council advocacy team will be fighting for in the 2006 legislative session include:

• Tax Relief - allowing small businesses the opportunity to reinvest more money to grow their businesses. The Chamber will work to repeal the estate tax so that businesses can be handed down without penalties. We will also work to remove the property tax on new capital investments in Kansas and phasing out the franchise tax over a multi-year period.
• Health Care - improving access to affordable, quality care for small business owners and employees in addition to proposing market driven solutions.
• Reducing Frivolous Lawsuits - limiting outlandish punitive damages that are crafted to force large settlements regardless of the level of responsibility of small businesses. Small employers have special needs in fighting lawsuits, because nearly all do not have the legal staff to fight unfair litigation. 
• Unemployment Compensation - simplifying and reducing costs and working with small business on their special administrative issues.
• Workers Compensation - Reducing the time and expense of the workers comp system and ensuring the system is helping injured workers while holding costs in check for small employers. The Chamber will work to reinstate 1993 workers comp reforms eroded over time by Administrative Law Judges so that workers compensation costs are decreased and fairness returned to the workers comp system.
• Red Tape - reducing burdensome state and federal regulations and paperwork requirements that produce questionable results

The Kansas Chamber Record for Small Business
The record of The Kansas Chamber on small business issues during the past three sessions of the legislature has been impressive, but much more work remains. These sessions of the Kansas Legislature produced improvements in the small business climate:

2005
Health Care. To reduce the rising costs of health care, The Chamber successfully passed legislation to simplify and expand small business tax credits and to permit employers to take the credit for contributions to Health Savings Accounts. Additionally, The Chamber fought for legislation to establish a consumer friendly health care cost and quality data program so that consumers can make good decisions about their health care dollars. This legislation was part reorganization of the state's health care programs. These initiatives will help manage the double-digit increases in health insurance that businesses have seen over the last few years.

Legal Climate. The Kansas Chamber successfully fought for a number of legislative proposals designed to improve the Kansas legal climate. The Chamber was successful in passing an appeal bond waiver bill that helps ease the burden of an appeal if a judgment has been rendered against a business, especially as small business.

Unemployment Compensation. The Chamber fought for an Unemployment Compensation bill to permit employees to be terminated for cause if they fail a drug or alcohol test. This measure will simplify the unemployment drug and alcohol statue which primarily helps small businesses.

Worker's Comp. Working to reduce business costs, The Chamber led the fight for Workers Comp reform at the Statehouse. For the first time in 10 years, a worker's compensation bill passed that was opposed by the trial lawyers and organized labor. The bill permits positive drug and alcohol tests to be admitted in evidence if substance abuse contributes to workplace accidents. Another work comp bill improves the language to better define date of accidents on non-traumatic injury cases, helping to manage Workers Comp costs.

2004
Business Taxes. The Kansas Chamber fought to delay the destination sourcing provisions enacted with the Streamlined Sales Tax Project, until January 1, 2005. In addition we worked to reduce the Kansas franchise fee tax rate from $2 to $.125 for every $1,000 of net worth.

Tort Reform. The Chamber worked to increases the amount of money that can be in dispute for a party to file an action in small claims court. The amount in dispute to file a small claims action was increased to $4,000.

Unemployment Compensation. The Kansas Chamber supported unemployment compensation reform that made several changes to the Kansas Employment Security Law that clarifies the requirement of an employee absent from the job. This helps small businesses by making it easier to disqualify employees from benefits if they continue to be absent from the job.

2003
Business Taxes. The Kansas Chamber fought off many business tax increases and last minute proposals that would increase the cost of doing business in the state. In addition, we were successful in repealing the succession tax imposed on heirs during the 2002 Legislative Session. This tax affects primarily small business owners that hand their companies down to family members after their death.

Small Business Concerns Mounting
The Chamber's 2004 survey of Kansas business owners, which was published in early 2005, provided the Small Business Council with a snapshot of the concerns of small employers across Kansas, which comprised more than 95 percent of the respondents. At that time, small employers were concerned about reducing the costs of doing business in Kansas and frivolous lawsuits. For the report go to http://www.kansaschamber.org/forms/advo3/V3Num02.htm. This information will be updated soon with another poll soon in the field to listen to Kansas' small business interests.

10,000 Members Strong
The Kansas Chamber, with headquarters in Topeka, is the statewide business advocacy group moving Kansas towards becoming the best state in America to do business. The Kansas Chamber and its affiliate organization, The Kansas Chamber Federation, have more than 10,000 member businesses, including local and regional chambers of commerce and trade organizations. The Chamber represents small, medium and large employers all across Kansas.

Driving the U.S. Economy
Small businesses drive the nation's economy, according to a report from the Small Business Administration. Titled 2003 State Small Business Profiles, the report reveals that more than 99% of all American businesses are small businesses. For SBA's report go to http://www.sba.gov/advo.

Small business accounts for 75 percent of the new jobs created by American businesses.

Fully 99 percent of all independent enterprises in the country employ fewer than 500 people. These small enterprises account for 52 percent of all U.S. workers, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Small businesses account for 52 percent of all workers.

Kansas Small Employers Vital
In Kansas, small businesses are vital to the financial well-being of the state's economy. Their contribution is essential for economic growth since they make up almost all employer firms in the state, according to the United States Small Business Administration.

With more than 95 percent of the members, small firms dominate The Kansas Chamber.