WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) today joined the Maine Health Access Foundation (MeHAF) and the Maine Development Foundation (MDF) to discuss their ongoing efforts to provide technical assistance and unbiased information to small and medium-sized businesses about the health care reform bill.  MDF, a non-profit organization promoting long-term economic growth for Maine, received a grant from MeHAF to conduct small business policy analysis, outreach, and education related to the new health care reform law.

“I commend the consortium’s initiative to reach out to our primary job-creators and address the challenges small businesses will face in complying with the recently-enacted health care bill,” said Senator Snowe.  “Throughout the debate on health care reform, I expressed very real and significant concerns about the job-killing tax increases the final bill would impose on families and small businesses grappling with the deepest and longest recession since World War II.  Rather than rising to meet the challenges posed by the current state of our health care system, the hard work of legislating and deliberating our differences were cast aside in favor of either-or propositions on the backs of our economy’s primary job creators, which is why I ultimately opposed this legislation.

“Small businesses must now wrestle with an over-extended new law, paid for with a job-killing $210 billion increase in Medicare taxes on businesses and an estimated $500 billion overall increase in taxes.  Of particular concern is a new requirement that all businesses provide an IRS 1099 form for every business transaction in excess of $600, which will undoubtedly boost the cost of tax compliance that the Small Business Administration already estimates runs three times higher in small firms than in larger firms.

“The work done by MeHAF and MDF is a critical first step in righting the wrongs imposed by the health care bill.  In Congress, I will continue to fight for the repeal of the troubling 1099 provision and look forward to working with this consortium to address other provisions our small businesses find harmful to their long-term vitality.”