For the legislative and political week September 5-9
Welcome to the September 5-9 edition of the NFIB California Main Street Minute from your NFIB small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento.
Topline
- The California Legislature adjourned its 2021-2022 session Wednesday, August 31.
The Legislature
- Mercifully, the most anti-business Legislature in anyone’s memory adjourned its 2021-2022 session last week (August 31) and is done for the year.
- Through it all, NFIB, often with coalition partners, was able to achieve some important victories for small business. A list of the bills we worked to pass or defeat can be read here.
- From that list, we’ve updated our one-page Good, Bad, and Ugly document to give our advocates (Sales teammates and Leadership Council) and the media a flavor of what transpired.
- CAUTION: The information contained in the above links is not final but will be updated to include a baker’s dozen of bills awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature or veto. He has until the end of the month (September 30) to act on them.
Climate Update
- The governor got his way on the climate bills he wanted passed:
— Assembly Bill 1279, the California Climate Crisis Act
— Senate Bill 1137 instituting new oil and gas restrictions
— Senate Bill 1020, the Clean Energy, Jobs, and Affordability Act of 2022
— Senate Bill 905 on carbon sequestration
— Assembly Bill 1757, the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006
— Senate Bill 846 extending the operational life of Diablo Canyon.
- Interestingly, Assembly Bill 2133, which called for speeding up the timetable for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, failed in the end.
- Want more regulations? The California Air Resources Board will soon have them. NFIB California thanks its members and others who answered our social media campaign to make their voices heard. The campaign made around 53 million impressions on social media. The campaign ended Friday (September 2). All that remains now is to see what the final regulations of CARB’s 2022 Scoping Plan contain.
- And remember, in addition to the above, CARB also made an international splash with its August 25 announcement that all cars and light trucks sold in California must be zero-emission vehicles by 2035.
A Bit of Good News
- Senate Bill 262, greatly neutered from its original quest to set a zero-bail policy for the state, failed to make it out of the Assembly before the legislative clock ran out.
- As NFIB California State Director John Kabateck pointed out in his widely read, August 29 Kaba-Text, Will it Take Another Mary Kate Tibbitts?:
— “Originally, SB 262 would have empowered judges to consider someone’s ability to pay when setting bail, but the slaying of Mary Kate Tibbitts in the Land Park neighborhood of Sacramento by an accused killer out on bail forced legislators to order it sent to the inactive file, generally a graveyard, on Sept. 9, 2021.
— “Almost a full year later, it was sprung from the inactive file last week (August 23). Although it has been stripped of its ability-to-pay component, two elements that remain still send a strong message that California – as a matter of policy – favors the perpetrator over the victim.”
National
- NFIB released its latest monthly Jobs Report on September 1. Finding workers for unfilled job openings continues to plague Main Street, with construction 70%, manufacturing 64%, and transportation 58% the top three in search of employees.
Next Main Street Minute September 12.
