Seattle - Washington Policy Center, the state's premier public policy research organization, launched its research center, the Center for Small Business & Entrepreneurship, on Thursday, June 22nd at a luncheon in Seattle with 120 business and community leaders.

The event marked the official transition of Washington Policy Center's part-time Small Business Project into a full-time research center with dedicated funds and staff. The Small Business Project has been conducting research and analysis on issues facing small business owners since 2001. In the past five years the Project has published three major studies, held several small business roundtables and issue forums across the state. A Statewide Small Business Conference was held in 2003 and two were held in 2005, with Governor Gregoire keynoting the Western Washington Conference last November.

The lunch featured C.J. Buck, President and CEO of Buck Knives, a 100 year old family-owned business. Mr. Buck's company moved to Post Falls, Idaho in 2004 after an exhaustive relocation effort. Previously located in Southern California, Mr. Buck looked at relocating to Oregon, Idaho and Washington. He chose Idaho because of its business-friendly regulatory and legislative climate.

Although initially considered, Washington state was ruled out early due to an unfriendly business climate closely resembling that of California. "Idaho provided a better legislative climate," and a place comfortable enough to operate business ten years down the road, said Mr. Buck at the lunch.

"We were thrilled with the turnout and support for our Small Business Center," said Small Business Center director Carl Gipson. "We have a fairly unique way of helping to improve the small business climate because we rely on research and cooperative relationships with policymakers and small business owners."

The goal of the new Center for Small Business & Entrepreneurship is to help provide a voice for small businesses in Olympia and around the state. The new Center is not a lobbying organization, but revolves around solid research and analysis on policy issues facing small businesses such as unemployment insurance, workers compensation, access to affordable health care, workplace regulations, technological innovation and taxes.

In January 2005, the U.S. Small Business Administration nominated WPC's Small Business Project for a "Best Practices' award" one of only two non-governmental programs in the country recognized.

The Center for Small Business & Entrepreneurship is the second center opened, following the Center for Health Care Reform in April, by Washington Policy Center this year. Other WPC research centers include the Center for Environmental Policy and WashingtonVotes.org.