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Economy
Santa Clara County Wraps Up Economic Summit With Largest Employer: Small Business
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is wrapping up a three-part economic summit Monday. The final session is focused on how the county can stimulate small business.
Supervisors say the summit is in part a listening session. They want business owners to tell them how the county can help create jobs. As an example, Supervisor Mike Wasserman points to work he’s been doing with wineries in his South County district to streamline regulations that may be outdated.
“They have questions about how fast permits could be processed,” said Wasserman. “And to make sure the cost of the permit actually reflected the cost of county employees' time. As a result, we were able to bring several permit costs down.”
Supervisors will use what they learn in the summit to come up with possible follow-up actions the board could take to help improve the region’s economy.
Silicon Valley is known for major high tech firms, but as one supervisor said, small businesses employ 60 percent of county workers.
