Republican lawmakers recently submitted a letter to Governor Hochul calling on the state to do more to help small businesses, specifically regarding issues like the unemployment insurance tax and drawing money from other revenues throughout the state to support small businesses when it comes to rising costs.
CBS 6 went to local businesses in our area to see what help they needed, if any.
"This past couple of years, because of COVID, where you have somebody work for two weeks, three weeks, you have to include them in that math. So if all of a sudden I have 30 or 40 employees throughout the year that maybe only worked part-time, I still have to pay that, even if it doesn't affect them," says Scott Swedish.
Swedish is a small business owner in Saratoga Springs. His company Saratoga Coffee Traders is located on Broadway.
Swedish says he agrees that revenue from other sources is the key to helping small businesses stave off increasing costs "I think the biggest thing is your heaping things on small businesses, but we just legalized marijuana we just legalized gambling and your telling me you can't take 140 million dollars from that like one time and just relieve the pressure on small businesses." Swedish said.
Meanwhile, another business owner states that it's not small businesses like his that he's concerned about; it's actually the large ones that impact his bottom line "One of the things the state can do, is supporting the large businesses because we lose people, we get a lot of customers we have lost over the years because they're moving to states like Texas." said Greg Salomon of Nott Street Office.