CHARLOTTE, N.C. — With less than a week left, the chances for a government shutdown continue to increase. The deadline to fund the government before it shuts down is Saturday, Sept. 30, at 11:59 p.m.
There is a pervading fear in the Charlotte area that the financial halt could hurt small, local businesses and impact Charlotte's everyday services. Eric Heberlig is a political science professor at UNC Charlotte. He said the impact could be felt in several areas.
“I think the big issue for most citizens is that when you have the government shutdown, particularly if this lasts a long time, it has the ability to have a negative impact on economic growth. And that affects everybody," he said.
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Business experts worry even a short pause in the economy can cause a large hurdle for businesses. Small business strategist Brent Garrett focuses on providing ways to prevent small businesses from failing. He said, “I think it could just be a real shame for that to shut down and, for us, to put just one other problem on a small business that they really don't need.”
Data from a Goldman Sachs survey suggests that 67% of small business owners fear customer demand would go down due to economic uncertainty and instability. Heberlig said that what hurts local businesses is how many rely on the community to keep them afloat.
“If the economy is hurt, certainly all businesses, small businesses who are relying on local people have the ability to be affected," he said. "If they have loans before the Small Business Administration -- if they're not processing loans, that can have an impact on small businesses' ability to expand over the medium term.”
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Garrett adds, “We think about small business as making lots of profit -- really what they're doing is they are bridging the gap between their payables and receivables and taking a little bit of profit out to live. They are Main Street, really.”
A government shutdown would go into effect on Oct. 1, 2023, if there is no deal in place.
Contact Myles Harris at mharris5@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.