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Affordability Strategies Get Spotlight During First Congressional Family Business Caucus; Rep. Correa and Rep. Tenney Co-Chair Bipartisan Caucus
Rep. Tenney (R-NY) and Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) Address Caucus Attendees, Family-Owned Business Leaders; Dr. Frank Luntz Presents New Research on Voter Attitudes
This year’s first Congressional Family Business Caucus was held this month on Capitol Hill and lawmakers, family-owned business leaders, and political experts were there to discuss strategies for tackling the growing affordability issue in America.
Caucus attendees heard from Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) and from Caucus member Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV). Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA) and Tenney are the new Co-Chairs of the bipartisan Congressional Family Business Caucus.
The Congressional Family Business Caucus mission is to educate and inform legislators on the importance of family-owned businesses to the economy. According to research, America’s family-owned businesses contribute $7.7 trillion annually to the U.S. gross domestic product, accounting for 83.3 million jobs, or 59 percent of the country’s private workforce.
Seeking Affordability Strategies
During the meeting attendees received legislative and political updates by the law and government affairs firm Brownstein.
Brownstein experts emphasized the new state and federal wealth tax measures facing family-owned businesses and successful families, as well as housing affordability and wage growth. In addition, communications expert and political analyst Dr. Frank Luntz presented new voter attitude research.
A family business panel discussion on affordability consisted of Steve Wells, Co-Founder of American Food and Vending; Matt Nielsen, Shareholder, Nielsen-Massey Vanillas; Eddie Russnow, President, Mac Products, Inc.; Aiysha Johnson, Chief Executive Officer for New Jersey Society of CPA’s; and from David White, President, Superior Paving.
“Today, you need to understand the major consumer trends since COVID,” said Wells, about his food service business and managing pricing and margin issues. “Weight loss drugs, people eating less, and the fact people will now spend more to eat less are major factors in our business.”
Nielsen of Nielsen-Massey Vanilla focus was on going to market. “We’ve always been a high-margin, premium product, but now we’re looking at lower price points using product reformulations,” Nielsen said.
Russnow of MAC brought in the issue of timing and negotiating better terms. “Every day we now look at balancing the timing of purchases and negotiating better payment terms,” he said.
Aiysha Johnson, leader of New Jersey’s Society of CPAs, said “key areas to improve affordability are in technology and operations.” She added that technology can also “see savings in marketing and inventory” costs.
Paving company head David White said the key to affordability is to know “base line costs” first.
“Most businesses fail because they do not know their baseline costs,” White said. “But also, in our business safety is key to reducing costs, we save a lot of money by making sure our workers get home safely.”
Political analyst Luntz presented research on the increased polarization in the country on the merits of democracy versus capitalism. He also predicted the coming year will continue to see “a war on wealth.”
Attendees also heard from Sean Aylward, Managing Director of Ernst & Young LLP’s Private Tax and Family Enterprise Business Services, on the “four core strategies” needed for multigenerational business success.
“We’re grateful to see bipartisanship has not dead in Washington, D.C.,” said Pat Soldano, President, Family Enterprise USA, about this year’s first of three Caucus meetings. “We’re also grateful that the two new Caucus co-chairs, Rep. Tenney and Rep. Correa, are intimately familiar with the struggles and unique challenges faced by family-owned businesses versus traditional corporations.”
The next Congressional Family Business Caucus meetings are scheduled for June 6 and September 23.
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