Miller-Meeks visits Mt. Pleasant small businesses

MT. PLEASANT — Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks visited downtown Mt. Pleasant small businesses to show appreciation and discuss concerns they may have for legislators during small business week.

Miller-Meeks discussed the importance of supporting small businesses, employment retention concerns, expiring legislative provisions, rising energy costs, housing worries, and child care needs.

“I love your shop,” Miller-Meeks told From the Heart Flowers & Gifts owner Tina Chiles.

After discussing the busyness of prom, Mother’s Day, and graduation season, Chiles and Miller-Meeks chatted about the importance of small businesses in small communities like Mt. Pleasant.

Chiles told the Congresswoman how her business supports local groups like FFA and stated, “the money stays local.’

“There's no business that ever becomes a Fortune 500 company without being a small business first,” Miller-Meeks said.

When asked for opinion as a small-business owner, Chiles said, “The challenges have been getting good help and keeping that help and financing can sometimes be a challenge,.”

According to Miller-Meeks, legislators are currently “Looking at the Tax Cut and Jobs Act and how that expiration affects small businesses.”

“Whether it's having deductions, whether it's doubling the child care tax credit so that you can have employees, those things are very important to small businesses,” Miller-Meeks said. “So, we'll continue to stay on that, trying to get those provisions extended.”

Continuing her brief tour of downtown businesses, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks visited Central Park Coffee Company.

“what's a major success and a major challenge for you as a small-business owner?” Lindeen asked Central Park Owner Tina Hill.

“We made it through COVID,” Hill said before expressing concerns about the availability of products.

Miller-Meeks brought the conversation back to the rising cost of energy and how that impacts transportation and the bottom dollar, especially for small business owners.

“Yes, and in a small community, you can’t raise the prices like you can in other markets,” Hill said.

Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks took a short detour for a friendly visit with hugs and an update on the owner’s recent knee-replacement surgery before continuing to Your Dream Home Furniture and Floors.

Familiar conversations continued as Miller-Meeks discussed recliner options under consideration by herself and her husband.

Owner Heather Leichty expressed concerns about retaining good employees due to the rise in housing and child care costs.

“We have lost is three different young women as administrative assistants over the years because they can afford child care,” Leichty said. “So, that really does affect directly, and I have seen it over and over in my life if people that are trying to better themselves and they get to that certain point, especially with rent subsidies, they get to that point, and they won't go any farther because they can't afford to.”

“John Boyce From has agreed to work with me on that issue,” Miller-Meeks responded. “So, it will be one of the issues, not a popular issue, but it'll be one of the issues that we're working with. Precisely what you're saying. There are people who want to go forward, who want to do more, who want to earn more, who can and down, and we should be able to encourage that motivation and assist them in this process.”

“Affordable housing is an issue all the time, and I think that's something we need to address,” Leichty also said. “We talk about we'll have affordable housing, and there'll be, like, an apartment, three-bedroom apartment in our little area at $900 a month, and that's not affordable to those people.”

Miller-Meeks thanked each of the small businesses owners that took time out of their day to chat with her, and encouraged them to reach out to her office with any further concerns.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com