While federal lawmakers are working to avoid the fiscal cliff, small business owners say they also need to be working on overall tax reform.

Members of the New Jersey Main Street Alliance came together with New Jersey Public Interest Research Group to discuss proposals to close corporate offshore tax loopholes and protect the overall interests of small business. Kelly Conklin owns an architecture firm in Bloomfield. He says he can’t get the same tax breaks as large corporations.

“My biggest concern is that we will continue to allow big corporations and their lobbyists on K Street to shape this debate and to determine the outcome for people like me and other small businesses because we just don’t have the financial clout, the influence particularly in Washington.”

Conklin is working with thousands of other small business owners, with the goal of being heard in Washington just as clearly as large corporations.