My Turn: Small businesses have a friend in Shaheen

As anyone who has started a company understands, our government can prove to be an effective partner when building a business. New Hampshire small-business owners, like myself, are lucky to have an ally in Washington who is fighting every day to make sure our government is supporting growth and development.

That ally is Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

Shaheen has proven to be a strong and effective advocate for New Hampshire small businesses like mine. She’s worked to expand access to capital and funding for small business, crafting legislation that helped businesses access short-term loans. She also helped to strengthen the Small Business Innovation Research program that has provided technology and research firms, like mine, $370 million in federal funding to explore new frontiers.

Such policy has retained jobs, in fact created jobs in New Hampshire rather than shipping them overseas.

And Shaheen is with our businesses when it comes to taxes. She is fighting to reduce the small business tax burden, crafting the Small Business Jobs Act that would cut taxes on small businesses and promote new, less-burdensome initiatives.

Shaheen’s office and staff set a high bar when it comes to constituent services and assisting local small businesses. Whenever I need help cutting through red tape, her office is there, even going as far on more than one occasion to have the senator intervene personally on our behalf.

Shaheen’s office also does a good job keeping me informed of any programs or funding opportunities we can take advantage of to help us cut costs and grow our business.

As an entrepreneur in a sector that relies on a highly skilled workforce, I am also glad that Shaheen is a strong supporter of education in the STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering and math – and technical training initiatives. My company can only thrive if we have good, well-educated people working for us.

And that requires a significant investment in education, like the one Shaheen is fighting to secure.

I am honored we have a senator who introduced bipartisan legislation to encourage students to explore careers in STEM subjects and has supported initiatives that make college more affordable.

Shaheen is fighting for New Hampshire businesses and small business owners. She understands that being pro-business means standing up for common sense initiatives that will help us grow and make our workforce more competitive in a globalized economy.

As a member of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, Shaheen gets that small business are the backbone of New Hampshire’s economy and that serving the working families and communities of the Granite State means working to ensure our small businesses have the tools they need to succeed.



(Kedar Gupta is CEO of ARC Energy in Nashua.)