US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand was in Syracuse today at a local business promoting tax breaks for small businesses. The bill is particularly directed at companies owned by women.
Suzanne Kondra-DeFuria runs Potter's Heating and Plumbing with jobs in central New York and across the country. But when she bought the place with her husband 32 years ago, no one thought the stay-at-home mom had a chance.
"It's just a woman in a man's business was completely different back then, completely different," Kondra-DeFuria said.
Today, women still deal with obstacles, according to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand who spoke at Potter's front door.
"Even though women-owned businesses begin with eight times less capital than male-owned businesses, between 1997 and 2007, women-owned businesses added half a million jobs," Gillibrand said.
Gillibrand and 16 other women senators introduced a bill to help small businesses.
The bill would provide tax incentives to invest in small businesses, give them deductions for capital investments and extend existing benefits for new start-ups.
DeFuria says the extra money can help women take more risks and that can make all the difference.
"It was my husband back then who didn't want to do it, and finally I said 'You know what, we need to take this risk.' It's the best thing we did," Kondra-DeFuria said.