Letter: Small businesses should be willing to help

Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007 | 7:46 a.m.

This is in response to Rich Davies' Oct. 23 letter, "Small businesses taxed enough already":

As a small-business owner in Las Vegas - I own a company that provides specialty services for trade shows - I take issue with the knee-jerk response to the current financial crisis in the state.

It's always NIMBY, or in this case, NOOMP - "Not out of my pocket." Las Vegas and Nevada have been very good to me and my family. This is a great business climate and place to live.

I take pride in this community that has so many positive attributes, but let's be real about the issues that confront us. The governor is proposing to take money away from our future in the form of education funding cuts and from the most defenseless in the form of child services funding cuts. Are we really OK with this? As community leaders, is this how we should react: NOOMP?

The small-business owner is a big part of the economic engine of this state. We deserve a chair at the table with the hotel operators, financial institutions, builders and so on when these and other issues are worked out. To earn that we have to be able to say we are paying our fair share, and honestly, right now, we aren't.

Peter Frigeri, Las Vegas