For the legislative and political week August 22-26
Welcome to the August 22-26 edition of the NFIB California Main Street Minute from your NFIB small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento.
The Legislature
- There was little action last week on the 15 bills of small businesses’ highest concern, which means the remaining eight days left before the August 31 adjournment of the 2021-2022 session will be frenetic ones. As of this report, there is no weekend session (August 27, 28) planned.
- Four of the 15 bills were amended, three by the Senate, one by the Assembly, so they must go back to the opposite chamber for concurrence before moving on to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. They were:
*Assembly Bill 257 calls for completely upending the fast-food franchise model in California. NFIB is opposed to AB 257. Employer groups aren’t the only ones opposed to this far-reaching measure. Even the governor’s own Department of Finance is, too, as its memo explains. “Finance is opposed to this bill because it creates significant ongoing costs at DIR [Department of Industrial Relations]. Additionally, it creates a sector-specific rule-making body within DIR, which could lead to a fragmented regulatory and legal environment for employers and raise long-term costs across industries. Finally, it is not clear that this bill will accomplish its goal, as it attempts to address delayed enforcement by creating stricter standards for certain sectors, which could exacerbate existing delays.”
*Assembly Bill 2183 would thwart the secret ballot election process in union elections. NFIB opposes AB 2183.
*Senate Bill 1044 would prohibit an employer from acting against an employee who left work because he or she felt unsafe. NFIB opposes SB 1044.
*The other amended measure, which got the Cal Chamber to now go neutral on, but which NFIB will continue to oppose, is Assembly Bill 2693. It would extend COVID-19 notice requirements that are no longer appropriate as the state moves into the endemic phase of COVID-19 in 2023.
CARB Update
- NFIB today starts the fourth week of its campaign to alert members about the California Air Resources Board’s 2022 Scoping Plan. So far, with our social media campaign, we have made 21.3 million impressions with our landing page.
- NFIB California and a handful of other business organizations have met with CARB Chair Liane Randolph and Board Member Davina Hurt to express our concerns about the impacts on small and ethnic businesses, those least able to afford or comply. We were met with an open door, admission that Main Street employers need the most help and best outcomes here, and a commitment to meet with NFIB and other job creators on a regular basis in the weeks and months ahead.
- In addition to our Action Alert and the heroic work of our Sales teammates spreading the word, NFIB California and only a handful of other groups can rightly claim to, if not having stopped the train, at least slowed it down long enough to get CARB to think through and mitigate some of the damage its scoping plan could have inflicted.
- The “listening sessions” CARB held have all concluded. Any future ones are still to be determined. Staff is putting together the final regulation for the CARB board’s approval, which is predicted to be sometime mid- to late-October.
Governor’s Climate Proposal
- The governor’s latest climate action plan, reported in last week’s Main Street Minute, still has no legislative bill number yet. That didn’t stop NFIB and a coalition of 64 other business groups from sending him an August 16 letter of concern.
*“We believe a rush to address these difficult and controversial issues in the waning days of the 2022 session will provide inadequate time for real input or debate and would undermine the legislative process … Just to give an example of the magnitude of the changes being proposed, adopting a more aggressive GHG 2030 emissions reduction target, from 40% to 55% below the 1990 level, would require the state to remove an additional 17 million gasoline vehicles off the road by 2030, according to data developed by the California Air Resources Board.”
Have You Voted Yet?
- NFIB California is asking its members their opinion on Proposition 30 on this November’s ballot. Background information and arguments made by proponents and opponents are given and the question asked is, “Should California increase taxes on individuals with over $2 million in annual income to subsidize clean energy and wildfire prevention initiatives?” Because this is for NFIB members only, the link to the survey is not included here. If you did not receive your survey, send NFIB Grassroots Manager Taylor Criddle an email, [email protected].
National
Highlight of the week.
- Last Thursday (August 18) NFIB released a video of some of its members discussing the effects of inflation on their enterprises.
Next Main Street Minute August 29.
