Cape Girardeau business owner on Show Me Recovery recommendations

Gov. Mike Parson announced this week the concluding report of his Show Me Recovery Task Force has been received.

The task force was charged with studying the ongoing impact of the pandemic on small - business owners and coming up with actionable solutions.

Chris Horrell, owner of Bug Zero pest control service in Cape Girardeau, said Tuesday child care was very much on the minds of business owners like himself who attended a state-sponsored Show Me Recovery "listening" meeting in Cape Girardeau last fall.

One of the five key recommendations of the task force to Parson was to improve child care availability and affordability to working families.

"People who had been working from home had to justify going back to the workplace because of child care issues," Horrell said, adding some sort of "reward" may be in order for working parents.

"You should be able to access some kind of incentive, whether it be tax credits or some other way to help supplement the financial burden. Folks with small children should be able to come out ahead by returning to work."

The other recommendations in the Show Me Recovery report were expanding and promoting hospitality industry apprenticeships; updating and promoting Missouri's Fast Track program; promoting and enhancing existing state program and service to support small, women-owned and minority-owned businesses and one Horrell particularly liked -- streamlining small business interaction with state agencies by creating a "one-stop shop" business portal.

"Some things get complicated, especially when you're starting out in business," he said.

"It's more efficient and simpler to go to one person or one state office for multiple items you need."

Horrell said the key ideas reported by the task force did not address a problem he is seeing since inflation reared its head late in 2021.

"We take our service directly to the customer and we're driving to get there," Horrell said.

"Rising fuel costs and the significant rise in the cost of vehicles are impacting my business a lot."

The Show Me Strong Recovery Task Force was formed last year by a gubernatorial executive order and officially dissolved in December.