Washington depends heavily on big business and international trade - we ship airplanes, apples, seafood and software all across the globe. We enjoy being the focal point or headquarters for many notable and high-powered companies. But before we chalk up our region's economic success to the big boys in Redmond, Everett and Bellevue, a close look at Washington's smaller companies is in order.

Why? Because we also depend on small businesses, and while life may look good from the executive suite on the 50th floor, thousands of small businesses face an uphill battle to succeed in our state. Unfortunately, our state legislators, rather than letting entrepreneurs do what they do best, are falling over themselves setting up regulatory roadblocks to success in the marketplace.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), Washington enjoys the third-highest rate of business start-ups in the nation. However, we also have the third-highest rate of business terminations in the nation. These statistics are a testament to our can-do spirit, but they are tempered by market and regulatory realities. Not every business, large or small, will survive in the free market. But businesses, large and small, should be focused on market fluctuations instead of on the growing list of government regulations.

The SBA stresses that government regulations fall harder on small businesses because small-business owners usually lack the legal or regulatory staff to adequately and quickly adapt to new regulations. Firms employing fewer than 20 employees face an annual regulatory burden of $6,975 per employee, a burden nearly 60 percent above that facing a firm employing over 500 employees - and that pertains only to federal regulations.

One of the new regulatory measures that all businesses may soon encounter is some sort of paid family leave insurance legislation. If passed, this new state-run insurance system will offer partial wage-replacement payments to those seeking family or medical leave for the birth of a child or to care for an ailing parent or themselves. Full-time employees would be entitled to $250 per week for up to five weeks, despite the fact that businesses of 50 or more employees currently give their employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per federal law. The program would be funded by a new payroll tax.

The concern in the small business community is not the nature of the family leave policy itself. Two-thirds of small businesses already offer some paid medical leave to their employees, with the other one-third offering flexible work schedules or additional sick or vacation time.

The business community is already tackling the important issue of letting employees take advantage of time with a newborn or to take care of an ailing parent. The state government, however, wants to step in to impose a tax and make sure small businesses are "doing the right thing." The business community's wariness is justified when government begins to legislate "proper" behavior by adding bureaucracy.

Small businesses already struggle to afford quality health care for their employees. They often face the difficult task of choosing health care or cutting back on other benefits, and are hampered by our state's heavily regulated insurance industry. Currently, it is illegal for small employers to offer low-cost, basic-value health care coverage to their workers.

Another burden to businesses in this state, again disproportionately hitting small businesses, is our tax system. Unique in the nation, our Business and Occupation (B&O) tax wallops new and small businesses over the head, once they achieve gross receipts of $28,000. This low threshold - on gross receipts, not net profit -means just about every business is hit.