Level the playing field for small businesses

It is a chance to level the playing field. A bill now before the Wisconsin Assembly seeks to ensure all of the state’s businesses, big and small, are treated equally. When the pandemic began and orders were issued that non-essential businesses be closed, big box stores were able to remain open, while many mom-and-pops had to close. Many small businesses struggled to make payroll without any revenue stream. Some have gone out of business. The decision of which businesses had to close and which could stay open was made well before Covid-19. The state has a list of what it considers essential and what it considers non-essential. Leaders said at the time they couldn’t allow exceptions, they had to follow state statute. That was true. But this bill would change  that, by removing the essential and non-essential designations. All businesses would have to be treated the same. No more winners and losers, according to the Wisconsin Federation of Independent Businesses in Wisconsin. We learned a few things during the pandemic. Hopefully we’ve learned that we shouldn’t have two classes of business during an emergency and allow one to thrive and the other to suffer.