Bilirakis Tells Hernando Business Group Small Businesses Are Hurting

U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis brought a blunt assessment to the Nature Coast Business Professional Association on March 17, telling the Hernando County group that small businesses are struggling under the weight of taxes and government rules that have stunted their growth.

"Small businesses across the country are hurting," Bilirakis said. "This meeting was a chance for me to visit with local business leaders, who said that high taxes and over regulation have kept them from expanding and helping out our area's economy."

The remarks put a local face on concerns Bilirakis has voiced repeatedly in his congressional work. His visit to the Nature Coast Business Professional Association gave area entrepreneurs a direct line to their representative, and the message that came back was consistent: the regulatory and tax environment is getting in the way.

The Hernando County meeting fits a pattern of constituent outreach Bilirakis has maintained across the region. He previously met with local fishermen and fishing groups alarmed by a ban on gag grouper, telling them the combination of the recession, the Gulf oil spill, and new catch restrictions had created a compounding crisis. "These folks have been hit by the recession, by the oil spill, and now by a ban on fishing for gag grouper," Bilirakis said at the time. "They're hurting and I want to do what I can to help them."

On the broader economic picture, Bilirakis has pointed to signs of recovery in the four-county Tampa Bay region, which his office defines as Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough, and Hernando counties. The labor force in that area grew and the unemployment rate fell every year since 2009, according to figures cited by his office, with Bilirakis crediting pro-growth policies at the state level and voicing support for Florida's tourism sector as a major job driver.

For the business owners who gathered with him in Hernando County, though, the immediate concern was closer to home: rules and tax burdens that make it harder to hire, invest, and grow in the Nature Coast economy.