GOP Jobs Tour Pushes Responsible Legislation

Several Republican state representatives spoke with small business owners at the Andover's Memorial Hall Library on Monday to discuss what can be done about the lack of jobs and healthy business throughout the state.

Andover is one of the last stops on the GOP jobs tour, which has already been down by Cape Cod as well as the south shore.

Many business owners, including Rep. Jim Lyons, stated how a laundry list of fees, taxes and permits must be dealt with in order to run a business in Massachusetts. Legislator at the forum included Lyons, R-Andover, House Minority Leader Brad Jones, R-North Reading, Donald Wong, R-Saugus and Brad Hill, R-Ipswich.

“A job, and a good job, is the most preferable program out there,” said Jones during the start of the meeting.

The group of legislators spoke with the audience about individual circumstances having to do with job creation and difficulties in being a small business owner. Most commonly, the group spoke about countless regulations and bureaucracy that make the process to own a small business burdensome and expensive.

Adams talked about responsible legislation that would make it easier for businesses, large or small, to operate in the state. He mentioned rolling back to the sales tax to 5 percent as well as the corporate income tax to 5 percent, calling it a tax on success.

By the end of the night, the group of legislators said they would be interested in forming a committee specifically to identify the rules in place that make it difficult to do business in Massachusetts.

“We are going to try to put together a commission to look at state statutes and regulations that are anti-jobs and anti-growth,” Adams said after the meeting.

Adams said they group is hoping to make it back to Andover in a couple months to report back to the public on what they’ve learned.