Dear Editor:
I’m a member of the Debtor-Creditor-Commercial Law Section of
the County Bar Association, and for more than two decades I have
represented small business owners in the South County.
Dear Editor:
I’m a member of the Debtor-Creditor-Commercial Law Section of the County Bar Association, and for more than two decades I have represented small business owners in the South County.
If you’ve seen If you’ve seen that “deer in the headlights” look on the faces of our local small business owners standing at the Bankruptcy Court for their first meeting of creditors, then you would, like me, be mystified at a proposal to increase government burdens on them. Be they taxes, fees, assessments, etc., we are already past the breaking point.
The abysmal small business failure rate (80 percent in the first five years of business), the historic all-time business bankruptcy rate, and the annual recession of Tax Freedom Day down the calendar, are indications of government blight. Suggestions that we follow hare-brained schemes from VTA’s Marx-Engels-Lenin-Trotsky-Stalin Ministry of Truth reminds me of medieval physicians sticking more blood-sucking leeches on dying patients. VTA’s for-hire carriage of passenger business was conceived insolvent, born bankrupt, and wastes more tax subsidies each passing year. This is denied by politicians currying favor with public-sector unions and it’s exactly what small business owners are trying to avoid.
Seeking VTA’s advice for business solutions, when the VTA’s accounting practices make Enron honest in comparison, is fraudulent misrepresentation and deceit by our leaders. If VTA “solvency” is seal, then San Jose Bus Lines was even more solvent on the day it filed a bankruptcy petition. Our small business owners need less government, fewer leeches, and a level playing field, something that Gilroy’s leaders have denied them for more than 20 years. Caveat Viator!
Joseph P. Thompson, Gilroy
Submitted thursday, Nov. 14 to ed****@ga****.com
