(WHTM)– The final push to the June 30 budget deadline is on at the capitol and on Monday small businesses made the rounds with lawmakers, making their priorities clear.

House leaders were talking about all of the things that are important to small businesses while at the Capitol, but number one is minimum wage.

In the budget this year, they’re going to discuss a minimum wage hike. They’ve been talking about that for a lot of years here at the Capitol. Small business folks do not want it.

“Listen, let’s start with a proposition,” State Rep. and Majority Leader Matt Bradford (D) said. “Paying someone $7.25 an hour is immoral and unconscionable. They’re not going to be able to provide for themselves enough to be able to provide for their family. And it’s cruel. So if you believe in the value of work, you need to set a minimum wage that reflects the value of that work.”

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“We should set salary for anybody that works in government for the private business,” State Rep. and Appropriations Chairman Seth Grove (R) said. “They’re not our employees. We have no business walking into a business and tell you how to operate. We don’t know your finances. We don’t know how you compete. That’s not our role whatsoever.”

“We’re not always going to be in this relatively high inflationary state,” State Rep. and Majority Policy Chairman Mike Schlossberg (D) said. “We’re not always going to have a workforce shortage. We need to make sure that when the economy does return to normal, all of our workers have the opportunity to make a minimum amount of money that is much fairer than $7.25.”

“The better question shouldn’t be asking businesses to pay more, but actually asking government to take a little bit less,” State Rep. and Minority Leader Bryan Cutler (R) said.

While minimum wage is a big issue, it is certainly not the only issue facing small businesses.

“We want the repeal of the accelerated sales tax prepayments,” State Director for NFIB Greg Moreland said. “We want regulatory relief. We want our dairy farmers to be able to put whole milk back in schools, to get that nutritious milk back to our kids. And we want to prevent our small businesses from frivolous lawsuits.”

When asked if the budget would be done by the deadline on June 30, Bradford said there’s no reason it shouldn’t be. But Cutler said no way it would be.

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