Andy Ray with BrightStar Care from Gilbert/Mesa AZ speaks with Congressional leaders about challenging tax and labor provisions in Reconciliation Bill

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As Congress continues to mold and decide on a reconciliation bill Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy held a roundtable discussion on Tuesday afternoon. IFA member Andy Ray with BrightStar Care from Gilbert/Mesa AZ area was present to represent and explain the negative impacts the bill would have on the franchise business model.

Between tax hikes and labor provisions, the reconciliation bill would damage local businesses and curtail their ability to grow. The House Ways and Means proposal increases the top marginal tax rate to 39.6%. This will penalize franchise businesses who choose to file their taxes at the individual level. To be crystal clear, higher taxes will be borne by workers through lost job opportunities and consumers through higher prices and less access to the brands they enjoy. The area that Andy leads has a large veteran population that depend on their services. Andy explained that “About 70% of our clientele is veterans. 300+ veterans receive care from our team. We have branched out to provide over 4,000 covid tests for children to ensure they can go to school.” These tax increases and continued labor shortages would lead to our nation’s veterans losing the essential care they deserve. The critical staffing shortage is preventing businesses from full recovery, but also impacting the ability to provide quality service to customers – and they pride themselves on the highest level of service to our clients.

In addition, there is concern that the bill also grants the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with unprecedented authority to levy civil penalties over millions of locally owned businesses. On average, Ray would lose up to $142,000 in profits if the employees of a franchisee were required to be employed by a unionized franchisor, affecting another 233,000 small business franchise owners across the country. The bill also increases existing OSHA penalties by 512%. This provision is particularly troubling as employers struggle to understand the Administration’s vaccine mandate, which will be enforced by OSHA.

During the roundtable, Rep. Kevin Hern from Oklahoma’s 1st congressional district emphasized how the lack of clarifying the 100-employee threshold of vaccination mandate will hurt these local businesses. “The mandate does not clarify if it is 100 employees in one location or 100 employees across 100 locations.” The mandate does not take any of those factors into consideration.

Andy Ray joined the BrightStar care team in September of 2019. The passion, integrity, honesty, and desire as a team to serve is evident in all that they do. Their team operates with one agenda, to deliver exceptional care to the patients, families and physicians that kindly give them the opportunity to do so. Having worked in Healthcare for more than 30 years, Ray has always felt that if they do a great job, each minute of our day, people’s lives are improved, families are comforted, and their entire community becomes stronger.

Other Members of Congress on the virtual roundtable call included: Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-03), Rep. Jackie Walorski (IN-02), Rep. Fred Keller (PA-12), Rep. Kevin Hern (OK-01), Rep. Beth Van Duyne (TX-24) and Rep. David Schweikert (AZ-06).

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