I have owned and operated a business since 2006, starting as a home-based business in Cranberry Township. After research, I chose Jackson Township to purchase my commercial location in 2013. My Dog’s Care Center is an honest and morally responsible company that employs roughly 20 people.

I have had many good experiences and appreciate the many services I have received in Jackson Township. I am proud to serve the community and the direction it appears to be headed.

This is my reason for being so dumbfounded with the $800 Business Privilege Tax. We all know taxes happen. Additional infrastructure and maintenance need to happen. It’s the cost of doing business.

For a business to attract employees it needs to have an incentive.For a township to attract residents and businesses it too needs an incentive. Please refer to the article in the Butler Eagle on July 8 titled “SR existing businesses get fee reduction.” Slippery Rock Mayor Jondavid Longo had requested an indefinite extension due to the staggering results. Since the fee reduction “program” was adopted to attract new businesses, six new businesses had come to Slippery Rock with one being a nonprofit.

For Jackson Township to implement this substantial increase on its small businesses suggests that you prefer the township to be occupied by big-box stores.

Perhaps we should be more creative and work together — township and business owners. We have more in common than different. We have roughly the same goals. In a tax and spend era, it would be a shame to turn the small businesses against the township. We could do so much more together to attract the businesses that are needed and keep the small bushiness that are the fabric and essence of this fine community.

Cathleen Erb Zelienople