Wednesday, September 5, 2001

I read the Aug. 22 letter to the editor from my mayoral opponent regarding "the coming arrival of Wal-Mart and Home Depot and the effect they will have on the small business economic landscape of our city" with great interest.

First, I am sure that the readers of The Citizen have viewed the comments of Mr. Bill Webster and how he refers to my adversary as "Wishy Washy Wellman." I do not believe that such name-calling is necessary. Mr. Webster could have just as easily stated that Mr. Wellman has difficulty with taking a stand on the issues facing Peachtree City along with a penchant towards frequent revision of his thoughts and then given some factual evidence for drawing such conclusions. This would encourage proper debate.

Although Mr. Webster has every right to refer to someone as "Wishy Washy" and to demand answers from candidates beyond the realm of generic, the political faction that is supporting Mr. Wellman will credit me with the word selection and relapse into a "he's so negative" tirade once again and be allowed to bypass the real issues. So I beg of you to please adhere to genuine positions without all the adjectives and the citizenry will be better served.

I stated in a letter to the editor months ago that traffic was my number three reason for not wanting the big box stores and that increased crime was my number one reason. I will tell you today that my number two reason was the negative impact on the small business sector.

I will give you the case study of Hearne, Texas. Wal-Mart came to Hearne with a great deal of civility and a basket full of promises. There was great excitement radiating from Chamber of Commerce and various elected officials. However, the thrills were short lived.

Wal-Mart began utilizing predatory pricing. According to a Hearne Wal-Mart employee, Ms. Edna Vinton, the manager of each department was required to do "comp pricing" (going to the competition's store and finding prices on comparable merchandise). Wal-Mart would mark the comparable merchandise below the small business retailer's price. In turn, the small retailer would lower its price. Next, Wal-Mart would make a drastic reduction in the prices and force the small retailer out of business. The multi-billion-dollar Wal-Mart was financially able to forego short-term profits until the small retailers went under. Hearne lost a great number of its "Main Street" small businesses.

To make matters worse, Wal-Mart later abandoned Hearne for another site 20 miles away and the city's tax base fell to the floor and vacant retail space was overly abundant.

I have read enough case studies to know that the fight I waged against the current administration's effort to allow big box retail in Peachtree City was a valid attempt to protect certain parts of our small business sector.

Let's face the fact that even without the big box competition, it is tough operating a small business. First, Georgia is ranked 23rd in the nation in small business survival, according to Chief Economist Raymond J. Keating. In addition, it is difficult finding employees in Peachtree City without paying above-average wages because of the small labor pool. According to the Georgia Dept. of Labor, the unemployment rate in Fayette County, as of May 2001, was a meager 1.7 percent.

A recent survey conducted by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) found that small business owners ranked availability of labor as their second highest concern behind taxes.

Taxes are an issue in Peachtree City. Peachtree City is only one of two municipalities in the metro area using occupational taxes. The current administration has consistently placed an unfair tax burden on our small business owners by capping the maximum tax paid by larger entities. Thus, the small business with 10 to 20 employees is "taxed out" for every employee while the larger entities only pay up to the capped threshold and are discounted for the remainder of their employees.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported in July that our economic growth has hit an 8-year low and consumers are beginning to hold back on spending. The NFIB survey revealed that poor sales was the third greatest concern of small business owners across the country.

As if our small business sector did not already have enough pressures mounting upon them, we allowed multi-billion-dollar, predatory-pricing wolves to come to town. I fought hard to prevent this from happening and we missed it by one council vote. By the way, where was Mr. Wellman?

Have you noticed that outside of the Wal-Mart in Newnan looks like a dreadful flea market? Have you noticed that the Home Depots in our area pile tons of merchandise out in the parking lots and front curbs for sale? They never seem to bring up the fact at the Planning Commission meetings that they plan on using around 20,000 square feet outside the store to sell merchandise. This type of merchandise pollution would detract from the character and charm of our community.

I initiated the changes in our ordinances, passed by the City Council, to ban this type of unsightly mess from happening in Peachtree City. Where was Mr. Wellman?

I initiated the movement for a big-box ordinance in Peachtree City after reading many books, conducting web searches and speaking with national experts. The ordinance passed but was blemished by some political wrangling by Mayor Lenox. Where was Mr. Wellman?

I have been persistently imploring the Peachtree City Development Authority to get back on track and resume looking out for business interests in Peachtree City and not managing recreational venues. Finally, we are seeing new blood on the Authority and the focus is beginning to change. Again, where has Mr. Wellman been?

To my small-business-owner friends, the Fayette County Development Authority is sponsoring a seminar entitled "Competing in the New Economy" on Sept. 26. The course deals with competing against big-box retailers. To reserve a spot call Kelly with the Development Authority at 770-461-5253.

Mr. Wellman is broadly pronouncing that he will hold an "economic summit" and a "roundtable" after the election. This sounds like President Bush heading to the World Trade Organization conference. Can we expect the same mediocre results?

I will stand on my past record of defending small business interests. Further, I will work to level the playing field on taxes. In addition, I will ask the City Council to initiate a program asking that all city departments set goals to award a percentage of the total value of all contracts or purchases to locally based small businesses.

I will very proudly lend myself as mayor to promote, on site or off, small businesses in our community. I will work with the city and county development authorities on assisting our small businesses and attracting state and federal funds to that end.

The best environment for entrepreneurship consists of low taxes, limited government, helpful regulation and government protection from increases in crime. You the voters can decide in November on whether you want a summit and a roundtable or if you want someone who is willing to get involved and work on solutions.

Steve Brown

Peachtree City

steve_ptc@juno.com

[Brown is an announced candidate for mayor of Peachtree City. The Citizen welcomes letters from candidates for all local offices and from citizens commenting on the candidates and issues raised. We will print the letters from candidates and a representative sampling of others subject to standard editing practices for length and conformity to libel laws, until the week before the election.]

Back to Opinion Home Page | Back to the top of the page