By AARON MUELLER

Dowagiac Daily News

NILES — U.S. Rep. Fred Upton will continue to be a busy man if elected to a 13th term Nov. 2 serving the 6th congressional district.

One of his biggest concerns is the 2,700-page health care bill that passed at the end of 2009.

One provision of the package Upton is specifically attacking is section 9066, which requires businesses to submit a 1099 tax form for every vendor that sells them more than $600 worth of goods.

“I pity the poor guy working at Staples,” Upton said in an interview with the Niles Daily Star. “Is that ream of paper going to put you over the $600? Who’s going to keep track of all this?”

That’s a question all business owners should be asking themselves, according to Michele Boyd, owner of Signal Travel and Tours in Niles.

“It will cost us money because someone will have to do it (file the tax forms),” she said. “This widens it up to pretty much everyone you do business with. It’s a very burdensome law.”

Boyd estimates her company will have to file at least 2,000 forms for the Internal Revenue Service.

“Everyone needs to take a look at it and how it affects business,” she said. “Not a lot of businesses have looked at the impact it will have because it’s in a 2,600-page document.”

Shelley Klug, executive director of the Southwestern Michigan Economic Growth Alliance, said it’s tough to predict the full impact of the provision until businesses know the exemptions, but she’s still wary.

“It is still safe to say that any additional accounting and reporting imposed on small businesses will cause further tightening of already tight budgets,” she said. “Businesses may have to reduce production and sales through reassignment of staffing dollars … or raise prices to pay for additional staff.”

Upton agreed the provision shouldn’t be included in the health care package and his colleagues are working on legislation to repeal it.

“What does this (provisions) have to do with health care?” he said. “Not a lot that I can figure. The suspicion is that this is the first step for a VAT (value-added tax) that might help finance some of this health care.”

If not repealed, the provision will take effect in 2012.

Even more pressing of an issue for Upton is the state of the economy, specifically Michigan’s.

He believes reducing government spending and extending the tax cuts are key for a rebound.

“We’ve got to get a handle on this spending. We need to balance the budget without raising taxes,” he said. “That’s where this fight on extending tax cuts is so important. If we don’t extend them, we raise them. And for us in the Midwest, it’s a killer.”

Upton praised the GOP’s “Pledge to America” for its focus on the economy.

“There are no social issues in there (the pledge). If you put in the social issues, that’s where all the focus will be,” he said. “Jobs and the economy are the most important hurdle for our country to get over.”

Upton acknowledges Congress has been too divided by party lines and would like to see more bipartisan efforts.

“We shouldn’t put a sock in the other side’s mouth, which has happened the past two years on virtually every issue,” he said.

But before tackling these issues, Upton will need to get past Democratic candidate Don Cooney of Kalamazoo for a second straight election this November.