SACRAMENTO, Calif., Jan. 9, 2015—The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the association serving California’s largest employer and generator of almost every new job, issued the following statement in response to Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed state budget:
“There are some elements of the governor’s budget worth applauding,” said John Kabateck, California executive director for NFIB “It is balanced, invests in critically-needed water projects, and calls for setting aside some rainy day funds, which are all very good initiatives. Small employers have no choice but to be responsible money managers in order to survive, government ought to be held to the same standard. But the budget’s reliance on cap-and-trade revenues to pay for a number of uncertain, unrelated projects takes us back to some of the budgetary shell games of the past fifteen years that brought our state to near bankruptcy. This is only the first year the cap-and-trade law is in effect, and there’s no way to predict how it will play out.”
Small business is no small matter in California. According to the latest data from the Office of Advocacy at the U.S. Small Business Administration, “California’s small businesses employed half or 6.3 million of the state’s private workforce in 2011. Almost all firms with employees are small. They make up 99.2 percent of all employers in the state.”
“Small businesses are not smaller versions of bigger businesses,” said Kabateck. “They have a much more difficult time than big businesses do in remaining solvent, bearing, as they do, the heavier brunt of any new or increased tax or regulation. We look forward to working with the governor and Legislature this year to ensure that small-business success and job-growth are central priorities in the policymaking process.”
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For more than 70 years, the National Federation of Independent Business has been the Voice of Small Business, taking the message from Main Street to the halls of Congress and all 50 state legislatures. NFIB annually surveys its members on state and federal issues vital to their survival as America’s economic engine and biggest creator of jobs. NFIB’s educational mission is to remind policymakers that small businesses are not smaller versions of bigger businesses; they have very different challenges and priorities.
NFIB/California
921 11th St., Suite 400
Sacramento, CA 95814
