[secretasiandan]

Do you believe that the costs are too high on an absolute level or just too high to hire given current business conditions? If too high on a absolute level, I'm curious to know what you believe to be a reasonable tax rate is.

What services and level of service would this provide? Is it inefficiency or uncessary services that makes taxes too high? Or something else?

Re health care benefits : that's not something you HAVE to give your employees. Why do you choose to offer them?

[stoptypingnow]

Extending this point a little, in a competitive environment I believe it matters what your competitors are paying for their labor and services. Since overhead (taxes and insurance) is relatively uniform, taxes should matter very little to his ability to compete.