Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton says small business owners are worried about health insurance costs, the lack of money local consumers have to spend on local business, and the lack of new growth in the county.

Dalton hosted a a roundtable discussion Friday at the Richmond County Chamber of Commerce on the topic.

“I’m a little business man,” said Bob Marshall when talking about his business, Marshall’s Office Supply.

“We’ve been hit with this economy quite a bit. Customers just don’t have the money to buy stuff. Our business is down 35 percent.”

Michael St. Jean with Carolina Custom Fabricators in Rockingham said his business has survived because of the commercial end of business, rather than residential.

“We’ve been in the community seven years,” St. Jean said. “People don’t know much about us. We’ve been fortunate because we got into the commercial end of the field and have been able to weather the recession, surprisingly so.”

St. Jean said the tough part of being a small business in this economy has been getting larger companies to pay their bills on time.

The roundtable discussion was part of Dalton’s listening tour for small business owners in North Carolina. He’s been working with Gregg Thompson, the state director of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) to hold these events and reach out to what he calls, “the backbone of our economy.”

“What I like is he understands the needs of small business,” Thompson said about Dalton. “As lieutenant governor he has been championing for small business, he started the Small Business Assistance Fund, and he understands the issues they face and the vital importance they play in our state’s future. Walter is a man of his word and integrity.”

“These discussions give small business owners opportunity to tell someone in the executive branch what they face on a daily basis,” Thompson added. “With industry gone, small business is what upholds the state during these tough economic times. It’s been helpful to the NFIB, chambers, and it’s good to have these discussions.”

Dalton said through his statewide listening tour he’s heard many concerns from small business owners including health care, the strength of the community and credit.

“Strength in small business depends on the strength of the community,” Dalton said. “Credit is also important, which is why we came up with the Small Business Assistance Fund.”

The fund was set up through the state legislature to give small businesses a short-term grant to help them through the tough economic times.

“During this economic crisis we found small businesses were actually financing big business; the assistance fund was just a little bit of money, but considering the state was $4 million in the hole itself, it sent a pretty big message. I think it’s been helpful, but it’s still not enough.”

Dalton said credit from banks to small businesses was also vital because without it, businesses have little to turn to other than their own credit cards.

“I’m glad that during the State of the Union Address President Obama said he wanted Congress to give money to community banks to loan to small businesses, and that’s what we need,” Dalton said. “We need to see more credit come back to help small business.”

Dalton said several economist have predicted that we’ve hit the bottom of this recession.

“In the next year they’re hopeful we’ll gain 35,000 jobs a year, but we’ve lost 250,000 in the last year because of this recession,” Dalton said. “We’ll recover, but it will be slow. It’ll be a slower start, but I think we’ll be able to see an uptick and move aggressively forward. I still believe North Carolina is a great place to do business.”

During the discussion, Ken Goodman, owner of R.W. Goodman, said he’s had the same kinds of problems as Marshall — people in Richmond County just don’t have the money to spend.

“We can borrow money,” he said. “But we don’t know how we’re going to pay it back because not a lot of our residents are able to shop. The economy is generally the problem. If local customers had money to spend, we would be a lot better.”

Goodman added that because the sales tax revenue has been low this year, it’s affected school projects, which has upset many, and he blames Internet sales for part of the problem.

“Internet sales is a huge problem,” Dalton commented. “I never thought it was fair in North Carolina.”

Dalton said he and other state reps from across the country had mentioned to members of Congress that something needed to be done to regulate Internet sales. Congress said if they could get together 30 states to join in this initiative then congress would take up the issue.

“Well we’ve got the 30 states together but Congress isn’t holding up their end of the bargain,” Dalton said. “This type of regulation would mean hundreds of millions of dollars to us.”

Dalton said it’s unfair when a business can pull up its “brick and mortar” locations from a state and fire all of it’s employees, etc., only to continue it’s business online, like Circuit City has done.

Rockingham Dragway’s owner Steve Earwood said business has been OK, but his problem is business depends on the weather, and on having good employees. He said he has nine full-time employees and when he has big events, he has up to 120 part-time employees.

“But the problem,” he said. “Is they always ask ‘Do I have to have a drug test?’ and ‘Can you pay me in cash?’”

Earwood said the dragway has about 100 events scheduled for this year.

Donna and Jim Lane, owners of the Ellerbe Springs Restaurant, said the only reason they can still make ends meet is because they started a catering business on the side.

The Lane’s said since the new Highway 220 bypass was opened, the restaurant has lost 75 percent of its business because the N.C. Department of Transportation has not let them put up signs they wanted.

“I think our biggest concern is what’s been done to our area with the road coming through,” Donna Lane said. “It was much needed, but it took a lot away and nothing was given back.”

The restaurant has a blue DOT sign on the highway, but they requested, and did the paperwork for, a brown, historic sign marker, since the business has been there for 70 years and the building is more than 100 years old. But the DOT said the historic markers were no longer being made.

Jim Lane said several million dollars in business has evaporated among area businesses because of the new road.

He also said that because tax rates are so high in Richmond County, business owners and homeowners go to places like Moore County instead.

“We’re pricing ourselves out of the market,” Lane said.

Lane said another problem is there’s no new growth, no one is moving to Richmond County.

“Without growth, retail business can’t survive,” Lone said.

“I’ve no good answer for you,” Dalton said. “Incentives are better for people to move here than Moore County. In Rutherford County where I’m from, all of their industry is gone and they have a 17 percent unemployment, so I know the struggles. But our incentive programs in this state are designed to give poorer areas higher incentives, but when there’s one on the hook, they ultimately decide where to go. They still want to go to the Charlottes and the Triangles.

“What you said about Moore is accurate, though, and it’s often a case of the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I will try and follow up on the brown signs. I can’t imagine why they disappeared. They’re made by the prisons and I’m sure there’s some cost, but can’t imagine much. The new administration might not be aware of that.”

Dalton, not wanting to get into the debate of the national health care plan, asked the business owners what their experience had been with health care. He mentioned a pilot program going on Buncombe County that lets members of the Chamber of Commerce there access group rates for health care through the chamber, rather than buying their own.

Both Thompson and Dalton recommended small business owners speak to their state representatives and Congressmen to state their concerns.

“If they make health insurance mandatory, they’re going to shut down small business,” said St. Jean in reference to the national health care debate.

“Yeah, I don’t know what will happen, which is why I don’t engage in that debate,” Dalton said.

When wrapping up the discussion Dalton added he’s working with the state Department of Commerce to create better resources for small businesses and said that things should be improving soon.

“We certainly need to be business friendly,” Dalton said. “Particularly to small business. We can never abandon the American dream.”

Staff writer Eren Tataragasi can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 19 or at etataragasi@yourdailyjournal.com.