Higher taxes are OK with him, but not waste, corruption

Joel Roth doesn’t see red when he hears that his taxes could go up, but he loathes government inefficiency.

So he had a different reaction than you might expect from a small-business owner when he heard about the anti-tax complaint that made “Joe the plumber” an instant icon in the presidential campaign.

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CURTIS COMPTON/ccompton@ajc.com

Joel Roth, president of Fulton Supply Co., opposed the government’s $700 billion bailout plan, so he sent his own proposal to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and others.

FULTON SUPPLY CO.*
• Founded: 1914
• Employees: 68
• Revenue: $20 million
• Product: Industrial supply distributor
*Part of a group of 10 diverse companies partly owned by Joel Roth with about 1,500 employees and $185 million in sales.

ECONOMIC CRISIS:
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• Higher taxes are OK with him, but not waste, corruption
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Sure, Democratic candidate Barack Obama’s plans to raise taxes for people who make more than $250,000 would “definitely affect me,” said Roth, who is president and majority shareholder of Atlanta-based Fulton Supply Co. The 68-employee industrial supply distributor is one of 10 small businesses he bought after leaving the corporate world. Together, they have about 1,500 employees, he said.

“For the good of the country, I would not be opposed to a tax increase, with one stipulation,” he said. “I’d like to see less waste, less corruption and less inefficiencies.”

Roth said he is tired of seeing government efforts he considers costly, wasteful or poorly conceived, such as the Iraq war and the $700 billion Wall Street bailout.

The former executive at Gulf & Western, who has written a book on how businesses can cut costs, was so unhappy with the recent bailout plan that he sent a memo outlining his own proposal to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and other top government officials. Under his proposal, the bailout money would have gone to fund a new government entity that would take ownership of homes headed into foreclosure in exchange for covering the monthly payments. But the affected families would be allowed to continue renting the homes and to buy them back from the agency later.

“These people have to live somewhere,” Roth said.

The longtime businessman is concerned about the stagnant economy’s effects on his businesses, but his biggest worry is finding good employees.

Partly because of that chronic issue, he takes a different approach to running his businesses than most companies.

Employees at Fulton Supply Co. and the other businesses own much of the stock, he said. The employee stock ownership plans serve as part of the workers’ retirement benefits, along with separate 401(k) retirement plans. Some retiring employees have cashed out with “hundreds of thousands of dollars” of company stock, he said.

The companies also provide employee health coverage that could be significantly affected if either candidate makes good on his promise to overhaul the nation’s health care system.

“I don’t think [Sen. John] McCain’s proposal is practical,” he said of the Republican candidate’s plan to tax company-provided health care benefits and provide an offsetting tax credit of up to $5,000 per family. “There’s no way you can get family medical coverage for that,” he said.