For the legislative and political week March 1-5
Welcome to the March 1 edition of the NFIB California Main Street Minute from the NFIB small business advocacy team in Sacramento.
- Bad end to the week when on Thursday, February 25, a San Francisco court ruled against NFIB’s and the National Retail Federation’s lawsuit to stop the burdensome new Cal/OSHA rules from continuing.
- “We are disappointed in today’s decision from the San Francisco court that denied our application for a preliminary injunction to stop the emergency temporary standard regulations from continuing to be enforced,” said Karen Harned, executive director of the Small Business Legal Center in a news release. “Small business owners are working hard to keep their businesses open after nearly a year of the pandemic with government shutdowns and additional mandates. We believe the law is clear and that Cal/OSHA did not follow the legal procedures required before imposing these new, burdensome and costly regulations on small businesses. Today’s decision is only going to further burden America’s already struggling Main Street.”
- NFIB California is forever thankful for members Darrell Feil of Abate-A-Weed in Bakersfield, Jim Mayfield of Mayfield Equipment in Ukiah, and Jim Relles of Relles Florist in Sacramento for stepping up as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
- What is the sense of giving with one hand only to take with the other? That is what a coalition letter to the Legislature, which NFIB has signed, asks in opposing Assembly Bill 84 and Senate Bill 95. “This paid sick leave mandate would essentially negate any financial relief small employers may receive through the proposed grant programs pending in the Budget.”
- Pandemic? What pandemic? All those closed small businesses you see decided to go on vacation at the same time. That’s all. And the ones still hanging on, some in the State Assembly suspect are all doing something shady. Assembly Bill 1003 “would make the intentional theft of wages, as defined, in an amount greater than $950, in aggregate, by an employer from one or more employees, punishable as grand theft.” Never mind wage theft is already illegal.
- The Sacramento Business Journal interviewed NFIB California State Director John Kabateck about AB 1003, who told the publication, “It seems to be yet another unnecessary and onerous attempt to harm our No. 1 job creators in this state: small businesses.”
- Save the date. Wednesday, April 21 is NFIB California’s Small Business Day at the Capitol. Tentative guests include top economic policy officials from the Newsom administration and key legislative leaders. For more information, send an email to NFIB Grassroots Manager Taylor Criddle.
Nationally
- This Wednesday, March 3, NFIB will host another of its webinars, Tax Tips for the 2021 Tax Season: COVID-19 Tax Planning with Anders CPAs & Advisors. Register here.
- Did you miss last week’s webinar? Click here to see Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC): Step by Step instructions with a CPA with Beth Milito, Holly Wade, and Matt Evans.
- NFIB’s opposition to the $15-an-hour minimum wage is well known throughout Congress (read our latest news release), now the nation’s leading small-business association is sounding the alarm over an equally terrible piece of legislation, H.R. 842, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act of 2021. If enacted, the bill would:
- Abolish state “Right to Work” laws by eliminating section 14(b) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and requiring all employees to contribute fees to a labor organization even if the employee is not a member of the labor organization.
- Restrict an employee’s ability to accept or reject union representation through a “card check” process, which would eliminate the secret ballot.
- Adopt a strict version of California’s “ABC” independent contractor test, which would significantly curtail the rights of small business owners to hire independent contractors. Even California realized that this test would be unworkable for many industries and elected to carve out some of the more affected industries. The PRO Act of 2021 contains no exceptions.
- You can learn more about the PRO Act here. You can take action here.
- On the good side, the bipartisan Main Street Tax Certainty Act was re-introduced by Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) and Henry Cuellar (D-TX) in the U.S. House and by Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) in the U.S. Senate. The legislation makes the 20 percent Small Business Deduction permanent.
Next Main Street Minute, March 8.
