For the legislative and political week July 20-24
Welcome to the July 20 issue of the NFIB California Main Street Minute from your small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento.
- Today, July 20, NFIB will deliver this letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom asking him to postpone a scheduled Jan. 1, 2021 increase in the state’s minimum-wage rate. He has until August 1 to act. “The minimum wage law is designed to follow the economy; if postponement is not warranted now, then just when would an offramp apply?”
- Well, maybe not. Last week’s Main Street Minute reported July 27 as the date the Legislature would return to work. We are now hearing July 27 may be an aspirational date to get rolling again. Many legislators have expressed misgivings about participation in Capitol hearings and travel. And given the governor’s all-but shelter in place order this last, some are questioning the optics since many businesses have been brought to a halt. Stay tuned.
- Well, maybe not so bad. Thanks to ZOOM, we have screen-to-screen-lobbied more legislators than we can count. It’s one more new abnormal, but it works.
- On July 15, State Director John Kabateck commented on the split roll property tax initiative for the San Francisco Bay Area NPR affiliate, KQED-FM. And, on July 17, in a guest editorial for the Workers’ Compensation Action Network and placed by them in three local news outlets, he warned of too many non-work-related workers’ comp. claims being swept into the governor’s presumption order. The editorial ran in the Carmichael Times, Gridley Herald, and Independent Voice.
- This week, on July 22, you can catch John on Los Angeles-area powerhouse KNX-AM 1070 at 7:45 a.m. for an eight-minute interview on the impact the economic crisis is having on small businesses.
Nationally
- This Wednesday’s webinar (July 22) is titled, PPP Loan Forgiveness Application Step-by-Step Live. Register here. You can submit your questions in advance by emailing [email protected].
- NFIB has now produced 17 webinars to date, all of which can be heard and seen again right here. Begun March 13 as a way to help NFIB members understand and navigate the federal loan program aimed at coronavirus financial relief, these Wednesday webinars have drawn as many as 10,000 small-business owners and others. Other webinars have discussed how businesses must adjust to the new employment picture. All of NFIB’s webinars, lobbying activities, news releases, polls, and surveys related to the COVID-19 pandemic can be found in one place: www.nfib.com/coronavirus.
- Still, all of us look forward to the day when the economy returns to normal and these can be looked at as cult classics.
NFIB California Main Street Minutes are published every Monday on the NFIB California webpage. Two additional updates are published the first and third Thursday of each month for inclusion in the bi-monthly newsletters to the membership. Next California Main Street Minute is July 27.
