00:00:00:00 - 00:00:19:03 Elliot Richardson Let me talk a little bit about the SBC, and I've been thinking about what I was going to say here for a while because it's an interesting time to be giving a speech. So folks say that politics is a contact sport. And having been in policy and politics for the last 14 years, I would say that's actually the case. 00:00:19:18 - 00:00:54:24 Elliot Richardson And we know folks are passionate about what they believe in and that they can cause spirited disagreements, sometimes too much so, in my humble opinion. And we know folks in the SBAC have differing political beliefs. However, we have built this organization on collaboration and understanding and having a shared vision of supporting the small business community. We're non-partisan and we stay laser focused on fighting for you, for small businesses, for entrepreneurs, and for those that support small businesses. 00:00:55:13 - 00:01:22:11 Elliot Richardson And our approach works by staying true to our mission, we have drum roll, please. We've lowered LLC. We've lowered LLC fees in this state. We've passed legislation. Every year when your annual renewal comes around, instead of $150 and $75, and that actually to 50 and $75, and that's a draft result of nonpartisan policy driven advocacy. 00:01:22:23 - 00:01:51:23 Elliot Richardson We pass legislation focused on stabilizing the cost of health insurance. We champion PPP deductibility. We work with a strong coalition to enhance tax incentives for businesses that hire formerly incarcerated individuals. We eliminated the need for a business to hang a sign in front of their store to receive full city council approval beforehand. If you wanted to hang a sign in Chicago, you had to have every city council member vote on your side. 00:01:52:12 - 00:02:16:06 Elliot Richardson We eliminated that. We made it easier for Chicago home based businesses. We passed legislation that should result in agencies more comprehensively analyzing the impact new regulations have on small businesses. We've increased transparency on government contracts, and we've got a lot more work to do on that. We've reduced vacancies in Chicago, and that's just the tip of the iceberg of the work that we've done in our current legislation. 00:02:16:06 - 00:02:37:14 Elliot Richardson Why you're here today, why you're supporting the organization, is we're pushing legislation that would say 50% of tax incentives in the state of Illinois should go to small businesses to level the playing field and to our small businesses and entrepreneurs to succeed. We'd like to see the reestablishment of the small business job creation tax credit for that very purpose. 00:02:38:01 - 00:03:01:28 Elliot Richardson We'd like to see property tax relief for small businesses that own their own properties and are struggling with rising property taxes. We're going to work on occupational licensing reform. We want to put guardrails around the high cost of certain prescription drugs because that drives up health insurance premiums and it makes the workforce less healthy. We'd like to see, as I mentioned, more transparency in government contracts. 00:03:02:09 - 00:03:27:09 Elliot Richardson And we're working to pass a Chicago Small Business package, a robust package of reforms that some of our partners here worked on with us that has now been endorsed by 37 business organizations from across the city, from Englewood to Lawndale to Lakeview to Jefferson Park to Midway to Edgewater to Hyde Park. That is a huge coalition and much more so. 00:03:27:24 - 00:03:51:29 Elliot Richardson I'm almost done. Just got to turn the page. I only have another page, I have a legal pad. All right, so. Here's our challenge as a community. Our challenge is there's going to be a lot of political noise, right? There's going to be a lot of partisan ranger. And we small business owners, we can get lost in that. Right. 00:03:51:29 - 00:04:18:03 Elliot Richardson So while everybody's fighting, we need policies to move forward that can truly support small businesses and entrepreneurs and local communities and local neighborhoods. And that's going to be our mission. So we're going to stay true to our nonpartisan nature. We're going to fight so we do not get lost in the shuffle on and that our interests are top of mind in front of center and we're going to keep fighting for all of you. 00:04:18:12 - 00:04:47:08 Elliot Richardson So let me say this before we end. First, I'd like to thank our staff. Emma. Natalia, Omari, Patti and Sherri, who helped significantly with this event. So give them a massive applause and if you are on the SBAC Board of Advisors. Please raise your hand. Please give them a huge round of applause. 00:04:52:11 - 00:05:19:26 Elliot Richardson People, the folks in the room. Again, I'd like to thank, Alan, I'd like to thank the Metropolitan Club and I know Brad McConnell's here from the Allies for Community Business. We're working on a grant together to help businesses open in disinvested communities. So thank you, Brad as well. All right. With that and I know Diane and Reid are in here, too, chambers of commerce that we work very, very closely with. 00:05:19:26 - 00:05:36:17 Elliot Richardson So thank you to. All right. So with that, we've got a silent auction. Feel free to bid. We highly encourage it. I know they're big trips, but thank you, Sherri. She's going to talk about winning bingo in a second.