Election results a thrill for business
With few exceptions, area employers say the continuation of President Bush's policies will help them grow and add jobs.
By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published November 4, 2004
With a few notable exceptions, business leaders in the Tampa Bay area applauded President Bush's clear-cut victory, believing his re-election will accelerate an economic recovery well under way.
"The election has been a big distraction," said Richard Frueh, chief executive of the independent brokerage firm GunnAllen Financial in Tampa. "Investors are going to look at it and say, "Hey, let's get back to business.' It feels great to have it behind us."
Bush's sweep back into office didn't just play well on Wall Street, where markets rose on Wednesday. Local companies involved in technology, defense, business services and basic commodities welcomed a second Bush term personally and professionally. With the threat of new taxes or changes in government policies under a Kerry presidency gone, executives were ready to move on.
While few admitted to delaying decisions on spending or hiring pending the outcome of the election, several expressed relief the bitterly contested campaign was over.
"There was such a constant bombardment of negative ads, I think it was stressing everyone out," said Peter Vosotas, president and chief executive at Nicholas Financial in Clearwater.
Phillip Casey, president and chief executive officer of Gerdau Ameristeel in Tampa, was particularly encouraged by the strong voter turnout that led to a mandate for Republicans in the White House and Congress.
"The worst case would have been to have a split, with the executive branch one party and the legislature from the opposite. Then gridlock and divisiveness would just accelerate," he said. "Now Bush has the ability to address critical policy issues. It's up to him and his leadership."
Not everyone was ready to celebrate. Though large insurers such as Humana Inc. benefit from Bush's support for consumer-directed health plans and health savings accounts, smaller players have a different perspective.
John Sinibaldi runs an insurance agency in Seminole that works almost exclusively with businesses that have fewer than 50 employees. He has seen at least 40 of his small business customers drop insurance during Bush's administration because of rising costs. Sinibaldi fears those numbers will only increase during a second Bush term.
"Small businesses have been priced out of the market for health insurance," he said. "Nobody's looking out for their best interest. It's grim."
Janelle Quinn, owner of Canadian Drug Co. in St. Petersburg, was reeling from the Bush victory. She fears a lame-duck president will have little incentive to change course and approve drug imports from Canada. She worries instead that the Bush administration could become more aggressive in cracking down on operations like hers, which help U.S. citizens get Canadian prescriptions at lower cost.
With Bush in the White House and Republicans increasing their control of Congress, government price controls for prescription medicines won't be on the table. Still, Bush might be under pressure to budge slightly on one of the most contentious issues for the industry - allowing reimportation of cheaper prescription drugs into the States.
Such sentiments were in the minority Wednesday. Even executives who weren't particularly enthusiastic about the election results said a known quantity like Bush is far preferable to an unknown.
John Long, president and chief executive of First Advantage Corp. in St. Petersburg, said his rapidly growing company, which does background screening for employers, landlords and nonprofits, would keep growing regardless of who is president.
"Homeland security is going to be an issue for a long time to come," he said. "The big thing we need is stability and if people are feeling better about security and more committed to investing, things will probably be okay for the next few years."
At Ceridian Benefit Services in St. Petersburg, a Bush re-election is positive for new company programs catering to health savings accounts and retirement planning.
"Had the outcome been different, we would have had to stop in place and wait for new direction," said Jim Corcoran, president. "Now we can continue and we may see additional job growth."
Shawn Hughes, chief executive of Fortress Technologies in Oldsmar, said his technology company has grown 30 percent, to 70 employees, in the past two years, thanks in large part to military contracts under a Bush administration. Fortress makes equipment that protects wireless transmissions. Hughes expects more growth, especially as commercial customers who might have delayed capital expenditures pending the election sign off on contracts.
Government technology spending likely will continue to be concentrated on defense and homeland security. During Bush's first term, federal spending on research and development rose more than 50 percent, jumping from $84-billion in 2000 to $126-billion in 2004. Most of that money - $71-billion in 2004 - was spent on research and development for defense.
CAE, which builds training simulators for the military in Tampa, is another local company to benefit from defense spending under Bush.
"Over the past couple years, our business has grown because of the military demand for training systems to support the global war on terrorism," said Chris Stellwag, CAE spokesman. "We're at about 350 people now in Tampa and we'll probably need another 20 or so engineers over the next nine months. We see the future as pretty bright."
Bullish too is Liana O'Drobinak, president of Acclaris in Tampa. Her company does business process outsourcing in the States and India. She thinks Acclaris will continue to grow because of Bush's economic initiatives. And though sending work offshore became a hot political issue in the campaign, she thinks it will become a necessity as the economy generates more jobs domestically.
"We'll be back to having a scarcity of folks in the U.S. work force," she said. "And where in the old days we use to bring people in, that doesn't make much sense from a security standpoint anymore. At the end of the day, many of these companies are global anyway."
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report. Kris Hundley can be reached at hundley@sptimes.com or 727 892-2996.