For the legislative and political week September 27-October 1
Welcome to the September 27-October 1 edition of the NFIB California Main Street Minute from your NFIB small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento.
Still no Word
- Last week passed with no word on the four remaining bills of small-business interest sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his signature or veto. A description of them was included in last week’s Main Street Minute, which you can read here. The governor has until October 10 to act on all bills.
Cal/OSHA
- NFIB is monitoring the Cal/OSHA Advisory Committee’s suggestions for making the COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) permanent. Word is initial drafts would not mandate vaccinations or contain a requirement of testing in place of vaccinations. Stay tuned.
No News is Good News
- This Thursday, September 30, is the day California’s Supplemental Paid Sick Leave law, created by the passage of Senate Bill 95 and signed into law by Governor Newsom, is set to expire. It mandated up to 80 hours of employer-paid COVID-19 sick leave and made it retroactive to January 1, 2021.
- With the Legislature adjourned for the year, no extension of the law will come from it, which leaves only the governor extending it by executive order.
New Small Business Website Launched
- The California Office of Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA) in the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) has launched a new resources web portal for starting a business, managing a business, and growing a business. NFIB members are highly encouraged to check it out.
Initiative Update
- The next General Election is more than a year away, but three ballot initiatives have already qualified.
- One would boost medical malpractice awards
- Another takes aim at single-use plastic bags
- A third “allows federally recognized Native American tribes to operate roulette, dice games, and sports wagering on tribal lands.”
You can read more about all three here.
- Five more proposed ballot initiatives have been given the green light to begin collecting the necessary signatures for placement—including one on mushrooms—and we’re not talking about the sauteed type thrown on top of meatloaf.
- “For individuals 21 and over, decriminalizes under state law the cultivation, manufacture, processing, distribution, transportation, possession, storage, consumption, and retail sale of psilocybin mushrooms, the hallucinogenic chemical compounds contained in them, and edible products and extracts derived from psilocybin mushrooms.”
- One referendum has already qualified for the November 2022 ballot, and it would repeal the state law against flavored tobacco products.
- Eighteen – that’s right,18! – other proposed ballot initiatives and referenda are pending title and text at the attorney general’s office. Click here for more information about them and the above.
In the News
Busy week spreading the small-business message for State Director John Kabateck.
- On September 23, CalMatters quoted him for a story about the difficulties small businesses would face if supplemental paid sick leave were extended. The story also ran in 30 other daily and online publications subscribing to CalMatters content.
- On September 22, Capitol Weekly published his guest editorial about the damage congressional proposals to increase taxes would have on the California economy.
- On September 21, he discussed vaccine mandates with the Southern California Record.
Federally
- On Friday, September 24, NFIB sent this four-page letter to the chairman and the ranking member of the House Budget Committee on the concerns it has with the budget reconciliation process. “Collectively, the Build Back Better Act will create significant problems for small business owners by imposing new mandates, substantially increasing taxes, and significantly increasing penalties on small business owners.”
- On September 22, NFIB hosted a webinar titled the Employee Retention Credit: A CPA Answers Frequently Asked Questions with Special Guest Kristi Stone. You can watch it here.
- On September 21, NFIB hosted a virtual briefing on “Save Your Land: What Small Business Landowners Need to Know About WOTUS.” Watch it here.
Next Main Street Minute October 4.
