Welcome to the May 11-15 edition of the Main Street Minute from your small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento.

Leadership Day a Huge Success

NFIB California once again thanks its members who made the journey to Sacramento May 4, 5 for our annual Leadership Day at the Capitol to lobby legislators on the issues most vital for small businesses. A story about it with numerous pictures can be read here.

Ballot Initiative Update

“The final days of April and the first week of May brought a significant wave of activity from measures aiming for the November ballot,” reports Tom Ross, president of Swing Strategies.

“Since our last update, the Voter Identification initiative cleared verification and became eligible for the November ballot, while 11 others have submitted signatures to county election officials for the initial raw count and verification.”

For a description of the 11 others, click here.

As we reported in the April 27-May 1 Main Street Minute, one ballot measure we’re keeping a keen eye on is the Local Taxpayer Protection Act, which has qualified for the November General Election ballot.

Driven by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the initiative would cap new local real estate transfer taxes at the state statutory limit and restores the two-thirds vote threshold on all local special taxes.

“Almost three-quarters (73 percent) of business owners own the building or property where their business is located (not including their primary residence),” according to the latest NFIB Tax Survey of the membership.

Stay tuned for more news about NFIB’s involvement in this important measure and effort!

Thank You, Darrell

NFIB always encourages congressional representatives to spend some time with our members to learn firsthand the challenges they face in making their enterprises run.

Last Thursday, May 7, U.S. Rep. Vince Fong of Bakersfield stopped by NFIB-member business Abate-A-Weed, run by NFIB California Leadership Council Member Darrell Feil, who also served a spell as chair of the Council.

Reports Darrell, “Vince was relaxed and attentive to all we discussed, and he had his two chiefs [of staff] with him as well. His local and DC. He spent a good hour with us. We put Vince on that riding mower and he drove it around. We all had a good time.”

Have a state legislator in mind that you’d like to invite to your business? NFIB is always willing to work with you to make it happen.

Grim Numbers

The California Center for Jobs & The Economy is out with the latest numbers on energy prices. Of the nine energy rates measured, California leads in five of them. And, if you have a lot of scroll time over the weekend, check out the Center’s “Califormers,” a list of businesses that have left the Golden State.

Regulation World

Highlights from Nielsen Merksamer’s weekly report

— May 1, the Office of Administrative Law approved CalRecycle’s SB 54 regulation, effective immediately.

— May 6, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Californians Against Waste announced they plan to sue CalRecycle for “weakening” SB 54 implementation regulations.

— May 6, the California Air Resources Board posted a notice of decision not to proceed with its proposed amendments to the Advanced Clean Trucks Regulation and the Zero-Emission. Powertrain Certification Test Procedure. The notice states, “CARB staff may propose new regulatory action that is similar or identical to the regulatory action that is subject to this notice.”

Calendar

— May 18: Last day to register for the June 2 Primary Election

— May 29: Last day for bills to pass their house of origin

— June 2: Primary Election for eight state constitutional offices, four Board of Equalization seats, all 52 congressional seats, all 80 assembly seats, and 20 (even-numbered districts) state senate seats. Governor’s proclamation here.

— June 2: All ballots returned by mail must be postmarked on or before June 2 and received by county elections offices no later than June 9

— June 15: Deadline (by midnight) to pass new state budget

— July 2-August 3: Legislature on Summer Recess

— August 31: Legislature adjourns its 2026 session

— September 30: Last day for governor to sign or veto bills sent to him.

National

Highlights from Federal Government Relations Principal Louis Bertolotti’s weekly report

— NFIB sent a press release highlighting a letter of support for a bill recently introduced by Sen. John Kennedy that would protect American small businesses from BOI reporting mandates. Director of Federal Government Relations Josh McLeod said, “Repealing the invasive BOI mandate would protect over 32 million small businesses from being forced to hand over more personal data to the federal government. The new federal database created by the BOI reporting law is a disaster waiting to happen, and it’s time for FinCEN to destroy the unconstitutionally collected BOI data of America’s small businesses.”

— The Center Square, Yahoo! News, Just the News, and Off the Press cited NFIB’s tariff survey in its coverage of the White House Small Business Summit: “53% of small business owners favor the tariffs to some degree and 29% [are] opposed. However, 56% of respondents in the same survey said tariffs have negatively impacted their operations, suggesting that support for the policy does not always translate to positive business outcomes.”

— NFIB filed an amicus brief in the case Linney’s Pizza, LLC v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The case involves a challenge to a Federal Reserve rule that allows banks to charge excessive fees on debit card transactions. ”While accepting debit card payments is status quo for Main Street business owners, the exorbitant interchange fees charged by banks should not be,” said Beth Milito, SBLC Vice President and Executive Director. “Small businesses are now looking to the court of appeals to correct this mistake and prevent big banks from draining Main Street business owners dry through unreasonable swipe fees.”

— Spirit Airlines was in the news this week, as it became the first major U.S. airline to cease operations in over 25 years. Most airlines are of course not small businesses, but some do exist. NFIB represents more than 30 air transportation companies, including Nordic Air in Petersburg, Alaska, Mach One Charters in Chino, California, and Jet Air in Galesburg, Illinois. The latter has an especially interesting story – its founder, Harrel Timmons, is a member of the Illinois Aviation Hall of Fame. He named the company JET after his wife: Judith Ellen Timmons.

Next Main Street Minute: May 18. All Main Street Minutes can be found on the NFIB website here. Pull down the California tab in the upper-right-hand corner, or, to get right to it here, www.nfib.com/california.