The Guardian award is the highest honor NFIB bestows upon state legislators and is based on their outstanding voting record on small business issues and strong support for NFIB state policy priorities during the legislative session. Small businesses employ nearly half of the state’s workforce.
“As a small business owner myself, this award is incredibly meaningful to me, particularly in this difficult year where we’ve seen unprecedented circumstances and hardships challenge our state’s small businesses like never before. Throughout it all, the hardworking, resourceful members of our small business community do what they always do: they fought to survive, for the good of their families, employees and communities,” said Senator Borrello. “I have been in their corner from day one, advocating for relief measures and against arbitrary, one-size-fits-all policies that put their livelihoods in jeopardy. That commitment to our small business community will continue for as long as I am in public service.”
“Senator George Borrello uniquely understands the passion and frustration felt by New York’s small business owners because he is one himself. On the critical issues that impact all small businesses across every region of our state – high taxes, onerous regulations, costly unemployment and workers’ compensation bureaucracies – Senator Borrello has carried the torch since his first day in the Senate. As local, independent businesses confront unprecedented new challenges brought forth by COVID-19, they will need strong allies in Albany. Real-world experience like Senator Borrello’s might be uncommon in the halls of the Capitol but it has never been more valuable.” said Greg Biryla, NFIB’s New York State Director.
Among Senator Borrello’s legislative initiatives to help small businesses weather the crisis are a comprehensive relief measure that would provide small businesses with extensions on taxes, make no interest loans available and exempt employers from unemployment insurance rate increases due to unavoidable COVID-19 related layoffs. He also authored a regionally based reopening plan for New York’s economy, which eventually became the framework for the state’s plan.
“My thanks go out to NFIB for this great honor and for their own steadfast advocacy on behalf of New York’s small businesses. We have a lot of work ahead of us, and I look forward to tackling those issues in partnership with NFIB and its members,” Senator Borrello concluded.
For more than 75 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven. Since its founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.
