Heather Hampton-Knodle, vice president of Knodle Ltd., a grain and livestock farm in Montgomery County, has been named to the NFIB Illinois Leadership Council. Hampton-Knodle is a former vice president of American Agri Women who currently chairs Montgomery CEO, an organization that helps high school students develop their small businesses.
The LC is a volunteer advisory board that assists NFIB in developing strategies to support small businesses throughout the state. LC members are nominated either by NFIB’s state director or current council members and elected by the council.
Hampton-Knodle said, “We’re still active in farm organizations, but it’s wise, I think, to recognize and to support what we have in common with other small businesses, to be part of a bigger team with a deeper bench.”
She joined NFIB following the passage of the Affordable Care Act, which she calls “the Healthcare Consolidation Act.
“What made me join NFIB was [the federal law] requiring businesses to provide health insurance rather than allowing us to focus on health care, with an emphasis on ‘care,’” she said. NFIB was the lead plaintiff in the federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, a case which led to the U.S. Supreme Court.
She’s also concerned about Illinois’s persistent budget deficit. “It’s this failure of the state to develop a budget they can live with,” she said. Legislators “develop lots of spending proposals, but they don’t seem to understand the revenue side or take care of regular maintenance on roads and bridges, things that matter to everyone’s safety and commerce.”