Governor’s expected signing of leave bill one more skid in the way of small-business recovery
SACRAMENTO, Calif., Sept. 8, 2020—Were California able to leave well enough alone, today’s release of NFIB’s latest monthly Small Business Economic Trends report would give our state’s Main Street entrepreneurs more than just hope that economic recovery is gaining real traction, but – uniquely – our Legislature’s recent actions are doing their best to slow things down—with one more expected action adding to the down-shift.
“Coming right on the heels as it does of the promising news from NFIB’s latest Jobs Report and the U.S. Labor Department’s latest Jobs Report, today’s SBET findings that its Optimism Index increased to ‘a reading slightly above the historical 46-year average’ would make for a nice trifecta that in measurable ways, real economic recovery is underway,” said John Kabateck, California state director for NFIB. “But California of late goes out of its way to be the big asterisk to any good national trends.”
Kabateck pointed to the passage of Assembly Bills 685 and 3216 as two examples of his point, and the expected signing into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom of Senate Bill 1383 greatly expanding employee leave time, an issue that particularly rankles, according to Kabateck, because leave time is something 73 percent of small-business owners have been providing for years and in the best possible way: tailored to the need of the employee not forced into an ill-fitting suit of a state law. Brief descriptions of the bills, and even some ones that were mercifully derailed, can be found here.
“You don’t need a degree in economics to know what it takes to turbocharge our state’s economy, you just need an ounce of common sense,” said Kabateck. “The common sense to know you don’t lure small businesses to re-open or stay open by adding more costs, rules, and regulations on them. In addition to doing things counter to common sense, our Legislature took a few extra steps in not providing some liability protection against COVID-19 lawsuits, which other states made a priority, and it failed to relax its ‘Sue Your Boss’ law for even the best of reasons. Fine message we’re sending the state’s No. 1 job generators.”
Keep up with the latest on California small-business at www.nfib.com/california or by following NFIB on Twitter @NFIB_CA or on Facebook @NFIB.CA.
Contact: John Kabateck, California State Director, [email protected],
or Tony Malandra, Senior Media Manager, [email protected]
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For more than 77 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven association. Since its founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.
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