Payroll tax just one more way to squeeze businesses

As a small business with a relatively small payroll of six team members, my “investment” into the community with another tax would admittedly be relatively small at this point.

However, it still has to come from somewhere. It means I have to grow revenue, cut expenses or take home less money – all to pay another tax that “may” increase ridership.

As a small business that started right as the last great recession was starting to hit, we had to scrape, claw and sacrifice to even survive.

A new payroll tax, along with other ways that small businesses are constantly being squeezed, would be one more disincentive to grow our business, add more jobs and give to the nonprofits that we support.

We all want a vibrant community. I have lived and worked in Salem for most of my life. But it is already a tough place to do business in many ways.

And just because you own a business, doesn’t mean you are raking in the dough or have a bunch of extra cash sitting around. This tax targets businesses in a way that adopts that mentality and it gets tiring.

That’s why I’ll be voting no.

Tim Fahndrich

Salem