Jocelyn Benson, Small Business Owners Discuss Sky-High Costs Because of “John James Tax”

Today, Secretary of State and Democratic nominee for Governor Jocelyn Benson held a roundtable discussion with small business owners and local nonprofit leaders in Flint, to discuss the challenges facing small businesses in the wake of the latest round of “John James Tax” hikes. The Trump-James tariffs bring yet another man-made price hike that leaves small businesses vulnerable, unable to compete, and forced to choose between shutting their doors, laying off staff, and charging patrons more.

At a time when small businesses are already struggling under the high cost of electricity and drowning in red tape, John James has stayed silent, proving once again he will always stand with Donald Trump — not the people. Meanwhile, Jocelyn has been focused on bringing down costs and making Michigan the small business capital of the nation. She’ll make it easier to start and grow a business and make sure Michiganders can afford to live where they work, keeping talent in our communities.

“Speaking personally from our experience…we carry various recipes, various ingredients, and materials — we tend to like to keep a variety of things. But it's not possible at this time,” said La'Asia Johnson, Founder of Elle Jae Essentials. “With the tariffs they’ve increased the cost of raw materials, ingredients, and we're not able to keep as many things that we had before, which means we're not keeping the same customers we had before. People are looking to us to have something, and because it's not exactly in the budget right now, we're losing those people. It's hard as a small business to already get customers, let alone being able to retain them.”

“Here in Michigan, the way we grow our economy, the way we diversify our economy, and the way we build power in our economy is by making it easier to start and grow a small business,” said Jocelyn Benson. “My hope is that we can become the small business capital of the nation and we get there by having a governor who will prioritize our small businesses and ensure any policy decisions and budgetary decisions that are made are made with you at the table, to ensure we are helping you grow, not standing in the way.”

###