Ernst visits Fairfield cider house

Businesses that stayed open and kept people employed during the COVID-19 pandemic deserve some sort of tax break, according to Clint Stephenson, one of the owners of Fishback & Stephenson Cider House in Fairfield.

Stephenson shared that thought with U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, who visited the business on Saturday morning.

“If you are trying and you pivot, even if you’re bringing in more revenue, you’re still losing,” Stephenson said. “The only thing I can think of realistically is to do like a payroll tax credit.”

Stephenson shared the business’s history with Ernst.

He talked about how they used to run a burger restaurant that only served local beef in Fairfield.

“When we had enough money to do this – it was always our dream to make cider – we just shut the other place off,” Stephenson said. “We came out here and built an event center. The only thing we did wrong was open an event center in 2019 before COVID.”

After the event center opened, it was booked for every weekend two years out. Then, COVID hit.

To replace the lost event center business, they went back to being a burger restaurant and hired 25 people.

Stephenson said while the restaurant brought in more revenue, profits were down.

“So now, we have a low profit margin business – back to a restaurant – and we have our overhead,” he said.

They qualified for the initial round of money from the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which Stephenson said helped the business.

However, because they were bringing in more revenue – although not more profits – they did not qualify for any more federal business stimulus money.

“We got punished for trying,” Stephenson said, adding that other restaurants in the area received PPP money and shut their doors. “The stress test for lower revenue I think is rewarding people who aren’t trying.”

He said that they are currently benefiting from a retained employee tax credit.

“We need more programs like that,” he said. “You’re going to get rewarded if you did work or you’re trying.

“That’s another way to do stimulus where, ‘You tried, you stayed in business, you’re employing people, so keep doing it.’”

He said that the government should be rewarding those businesses that have done whatever they could do to stay open.

“The free money from the government and the stimulus is rewarding people who are not trying,” Stephenson said. “If you’re employing people and you’re paying people and you’re trying, give them the relief that way (payroll tax credit). Those are the people who are adding jobs.”

Ernst said that was “a point well taken.”

“People who were starting new businesses during that time period, obviously many of them did not have revenue the year prior, so they didn’t qualify,” Ernst said. “With the employee retention credit, there has been talk of doing away with it, because there aren’t that many people taking advantage of it.

“It’s a valuable program, and people may still have a need for that.”