When Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson said last month that budget pressures would have to reach an “extremely high bar” to trigger tax increases, Maryland small business owners breathed a sigh of relief. His words came at a recent conference of state and local officials and hopefully serve as a preview of budget negotiations during next year’s General Assembly session that begins in January.

A tax increase is the last thing small businesses can afford right now.

Since the COVID-19 days of government shutdowns and low revenue, small businesses have worked hard to make a strong economic rebound. Then came the high inflation and rising costs. Still, small business owners adjusted to keep their doors open for their customers and communities. They are still working to overcome all the various ongoing economic challenges.

Small business owners polled in a recent survey cited “federal taxes on business income” and “state taxes on business income” as two of the top 10 problems facing their small business today. Any tax increase would only exacerbate the challenges small businesses are facing daily.

Senator Ferguson said that economic growth is key for Maryland — it’s also key for Main Street businesses. When small businesses do well, our local communities thrive, and our economy strengthens.

Growing the economy should be a top priority for every Maryland elected official — and we can’t do that by taxing and spending our way into prosperity. Instead, we need to enact policies that will lessen the financial and regulatory burdens on small businesses to allow them to grow and thrive on their own. Because at the end of the day, small businesses are the engine of our economy.

But for the past few years, small businesses have reported low optimism and high uncertainty — a devastating combination.

To make their uncertainty worse, Maryland small businesses are facing a 20% tax hike next year unless Congress makes the Small Business Deduction permanent. This is looming over their businesses and has impacted the way owners are planning for the future. Not knowing if they will have a federal tax increase should make a state tax increase a non-starter.

Maryland officials, however, can work to improve the optimism and uncertainty for our state’s small business owners. We must make sure the “extremely high bar” that would trigger a tax increase stays high and out of reach.

Ferguson knows it: Growing our economy is essential and a tax increase is not how Maryland grows. Maryland small businesses thank the senator for recognizing that and are hopeful that others in the General Assembly follow his lead.

Mike O’Halloran is the Maryland state director for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB.com).