Home Builders Association of Greater Fox Valley

On Tuesday January 5^th, I had the opportunity to meet with Congressman Foster of our district at his office. The Congressman’s secretary requested a meeting to discuss the current economical and employment concerns of the remodeling industry. With confirmation from the National Build PAC department, I enthusiastically replied yes to the meeting. Congressman Foster has been a highly regarded supporter of the construction industry since his recent election and a friend of the NAHB, and our conversation implies that he has and will continue to support the growing concerns in our business activities. After a short discussion on the parameters of his jurisdiction, our conversation moved to an inquiry on the pulse of the remodeling side of the construction business. I redirected the question to a broader topic by providing some points to consider on the employment statistics available. This encompasses more than just our industry, but overall unemployment in general. I expressed to Congressman Foster that a misconception of unemployment by the federal government and the state government does not have the statistical impact of the small business self employed relevantly detailed. That this large group of the American population, although not necessarily unemployed, has a distinct impact on the economy, due to reduced income capacity. Many of us might not be collecting unemployment, but if we are not contracting business, due to a depressed economy, we are not collecting income, and thereby not having the ability to spend ourselves. He understood and replied that the irony of a down economy is people holding on to their assets and not investing in themselves. I expressed that this is a major plight to the remodelers. Previous projects that were from $50-250k were being replaced by projects of $1-10k, and the completion within our overall building industry is more intense than ever. He informed me that the statistical deficiency is acknowledged and work to modify that component is in the works. I also expressed to him that the credit industry needs to go through more changes than are coming into effect. I expressed a personal view that what was called the information age has become more of the miss-information age.

Our closing discussion centered around the new concern with the addendum for the small business modification on the health care issue. This issue will drop the employer required health care coverage from a minimum of 50 employees to a minimum of 5 employees and with a minimum payroll of $250k. That would bring a lot of small businesses into a legal requirement to have to provide health insurance to the employees of those businesses of only 5 employees. This is a distinct impact on the construction industry with probably 60% of the construction businesses in effect today. It would mean more businesses going under and even more unemployment for the future. As I mentioned, Congressman Foster is a supporter of the construction industry, but strengthen our cause by being heard. Send your message through Builderlink!

Art Wehnert

Past – HBAGFV – RC President 2008-2009