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About a hundred small business owners are protesting a new fee increase on the blue highway exit signs.

Some of fees for businesses advertising on the Florida Department of Transportation signs have increased 400 percent, costing some business owners as much as 5-thousand dollars more. The Asian American Hotel Owners Association hosted a sit-in at the state capitol Tuesday to protest the increase. The Association’s former chairman Nash Patel says the new fees could lead to layoffs.

“We want to employ people in this country. We want to employ people in the state of Florida. It makes it difficult for us to do that, so where do we cut cost? We ultimately have to let people go because we are going to end up doing our own work,” said Patel.

The business owners are also asking for the legislature to reverse the unemployment tax increase. The tax has increased 12 fold and will cost businesses tens of thousands of dollars.