The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council has come out with a warning for state governments: pass a state-level version of the mis-named Employee Free Choice Act and hurt your state’s economy. The SBE Council argues that state-level versions of EFCA will raise costs for small businesses, lessen competitiveness, and decrease productivity.  The Council is so opposed to the legislation that it has decided that the passage of a “card-check” bill would count against a state in the Council’s annual report on public policy climates for entrepreneurship and small business.

SBE Council President & CEO Karen Kerrigan explains: “…[EFCA is an] unfair, turn-key approach to forced unionization [and] will be especially burdensome and costly for small businesses.”

SBE Council chief economist Raymond J. Keating added: “The ‘card-check’ bill would boost the level of unionization, increase costs, and restrain productivity. That, of course, means that businesses become less competitive. Of course, in the long run, both business owners and employees would suffer.”

The “Small Business Survival Index” is perhaps the most comprehensive gauge available of how state and local policymakers treat entrepreneurs and small businesses. The measurements covered include taxes, various regulatory costs, government spending, property rights, health care and energy costs, and much more. The 2007 Index considered 31 major government-imposed or government-related costs affecting small businesses and entrepreneurs.