NEWS FLASH:  The bipartisan Congressional Debt Committee has failed to reach a compromise. Can you believe it?! (sense sarcasm) Actually, this thing had about as much chance of succeeding as Gary Coleman would’ve had in a slam dunk contest. (Whatchoo talkin bout, Wartgow?!)

OK, but what’s done is done, or in this case not done. Where do we go from here, and what implications are there for the Green Industry?

Automatic cuts to discretionary spending in 2013. Once the Defense budget is hammered, a lot of the savings will have to come from domestic programs such as agriculture and environmental protection. On the one hand, cuts to agriculture could negatively impact farmers who purchase ag and construction equipment from dealers. On the other hand, cuts to environmental agencies such as EPA could result in a slowdown of regulation, which would make a lot of dealers and contractors happy.

Bush tax cuts expire. Payroll taxes could go up, affecting just about everybody. Taxes on “the 1%” could also go up, affecting the primary market segment for lawn and landscaping services. Most importantly, job growth would remain stalled, further stalling the housing recovery, which is really the key to all of this.

Nothing gets done in 2012. Because a huge election is right around the corner in fall 2012, both parties dig in and wait to see what happens–because each has its own agenda and wants to wait and see if they are poised to “win” this battle once and for all.

In the meantime, I don’t think anything too drastic is in store for the Green Industry–nothing above and beyond what you’ve already had to deal with for the past three years, at any rate. So we might as well dig in and wait out 2012 like our elected leaders are also planning on doing.

~ Gregg Wartgow, editor in chief

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011 at 1:53 pm and is filed under Landscape Contractors Business Best Practices Blog, Lawn Equipment Small Engine Repair Business Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.