CEOs tell Bush stimulus will help

Permac Industries CEO Darlene Miller and eight other business leaders spoke Monday with President Bush about how the new economic stimulus package will help their companies.

Miller, who owns a high-precision machine shop in Burnsville, said she will use the enhanced expensing opportunities in the stimulus package to buy new equipment now instead of later. She was chosen from more than 60 business leaders to participate in the small phone interview with Bush, arranged with U.S. Chamber of Commerce help.

"We said, 'Look, Darlene, you have a great story. Let us share it with the White House,'" said chamber spokesman Giovanni Coratolo. "The fact is that she is positive and she is going out and buying equipment. She is not reading the paper and sticking her head in the sand and waiting for the clouds to pass."

Miller bought then-troubled Permac in stages in 1993 and 1994 with the help of a second mortgage and a cashed-in life insurance policy. She went on to modernize the plant with robotic machines and other computerized equipment.

Now the company has 42 employees, overseas customers and makes custom parts for John Deere, Toro and Harley Davidson.

The stimulus package, approved by Congress in February, will bring rebate checks to individual taxpayers while also letting businesses write off up to $250,000 in equipment purchases this year, double the usual amount.

Bush told the business leaders Monday that he expects the $152 billion stimulus plan to grow the economy by about 1.5 percent.

"I definitely feel the stimulus package will help not only me but a lot of other small businesses," Miller said. It helps keep costs down, which is helpful in competing, she said.

Miller, who has one employee in China after taking part in several trade missions there, joined Gov. Tim Pawlenty on the Minnesota trade mission to India in October.

She was a regional finalist for the 2008 U.S. Chamber small business of the year award and previously won the Small Business Administration's Small Business Person of the year award for Minnesota.