From John Feehery at CNN Politics:

“In truth, August is not the best time to advocate for any legislation. Many members of Congress are slated either to take vacation or an official trip far away from their constituents. Apart from professional grassroots organizers, most other Americans are either focused on their own vacations or getting the kids ready for school.”

Franchise owners don’t have the luxury of taking August off. Now, I don’t expect you to feel sorry for them, but let’s talk about who they are, for a moment.

1.     A local franchise owner is someone who has taken a financial risk, and put his or her own money on the line, {Along with a bank’s money} for a shot at the “American Dream.” These courageous folks have decided to try to take control of their own futures, as opposed to letting their employers do so.

2.     A local franchise owner is an integral part of the community. Whether it’s sponsoring a little league team, giving food to a hunger center, or adding tax revenue to its municipality, local franchise owners give.

3.     A local franchise owner provides employment opportunities. Even if it’s a small franchise operation only employing four people, those four people are employed. {Which is a good thing in the current economy}

4.     A local franchise owner may be your neighbor. They pay Real Estate taxes, spend money at the local grocery store, attend high school football games, and worry about the economy. {Just like you}

When the economy is in recession mode, they are probably feeling some pain just like any other small business. Their sales may be down, their margins may be lower than normal, and they may even be struggling to keep their doors open.  Adding fuel to the fire is President Obama’s health care reform bill that may include a “surcharge” that will affect small business owners, nationwide.

In the original legislation, businesses with more than $250,000 in payroll expenditures would have been required to purchase health insurance for their employees or face a punitive payroll tax of up to eight percent.  The new, improved version has a $500,000 threshold.

But, according to a report by the Ways and Means Committee, only 4.1 percent of all small business owners would be affected by the health care surcharge. The remaining 95.9 percent of small business owners will be completely unaffected by the surcharge.  Who might that be?

Would the owner of your local Subway be affected? There are probably not enough employees to get to the $500,000 payroll threshold, so I would say no.

Would the owner of a multi-unit franchise like Great Clips be affected? There are probably enough employees in a five or six store chain to get to that payroll threshold. If the franchise owner was not providing health care coverage, an 8 percent hit would be huge. Would it be enough to actually cut payroll? Or, would it be enough to change the franchise owner’s philosophy on providing health care to the chain’s employees. {Recently, there has been talk of offering a tax credit to small businesses that choose to offer health care to their workers.}

The International Franchise Association has looked at this issue, and here is what they would like to see happen. 

In the 24/7 news and information world we live in, it is sometimes hard to figure out what the real deal is on big issues like health care reform. Our two-party political system provides for colorful commentary, occasional town hall yelling, and even an op-ed from our President.

It may be a while until all of us see the final draft of this bill. It will be interesting to see how it ends up. In the meantime, I’d like to know your feelings about it? Do we need health care reform right now? Is it top of mind for you? If you are a franchise owner, are you concerned that health care reform will crush your business?