ABC joined dozens of business organizations nationwide to call on Congress to support meaningful tax reform in a full-page advertisement in the Oct. 11 edition of The Hill.

The ad, an open letter to Congress, cited a recent national poll of small business owners showing that a majority would use tax cut savings to create jobs, raise wages and move into new product fields. The letter was signed by ABC President and CEO Mike Bellaman¬ along with the CEOs of the Florida East Coast, Florida First Coast and Rocky Mountain chapters.
 
Most of ABC’s members are small, family-owned businesses that have shouldered the burden of high federal tax rates for too long. According to analysis by the U.S. Department of Treasury, the construction industry pays the highest effective tax rate of any sector of the nation’s economy—27 percent, compared to an average of 22 percent for other industries. That stifles growth, individual wages and hiring.

ABC believes that fair, equitable treatment of all businesses in the tax code will foster company expansion and diversification and supports the Unified Framework for Fixing our Broken Tax Code, calling it a promising step forward for the first genuine reform of the tax code in a generation.