From your small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento
Welcome to the August 14-18 edition of the Main Street Minute from your small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento.
What Deadlines?
- The Legislature is back from its monthlong summer recess today and must immediately shift into high gear because there’s only a month left in its 2023 session.
- As reported in last week’s Main Street Minute, NFIB narrowed to 52 the number of bills affecting small businesses from the 2,995 introduced this year. Twenty-four of those 52 are now dead, leaving 28 left to track–26 to oppose and two to support.
- But wait! No bill list can ever be final, because the rules governing the legislative process hold as firmly as Jell-O nailed to a wall. There will be a new bill to add to NFIB’s list, one that we will be certain to oppose. What’s the bill number? It hasn’t been announced yet. Reports Politico California:
— “Striking workers in California would get to draw unemployment benefits under a proposal Democrats are preparing to introduce in the final stretch of the legislative session …
— “The legislation, which is not yet in print, will be carried by Senate Appropriations Chair Anthony Portantino, a Southern California Democrat, and co-authored by Democratic Assemblymembers Laura Friedman and Chris Holden. It’s backed by the powerful California Labor Federation, whose leader, former state Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, tried to pass similar legislation in 2019 …
— “It’s too late in the year for lawmakers to introduce entirely new legislation, but they can get around those missed deadlines by repurposing unrelated bills they no longer care to advance — a maneuver colloquially known as a ‘gut-and-amend.’ Portantino said he is still working on gathering support for his proposal, and that he expects to move forward with the plan in about two weeks.”
- Who just said that!!?? Why, yes, the unemployment insurance trust fund is $18 billion-and counting in hock to the federal government and is technically insolvent. How rude of you to bring this up.
- For the next month, NFIB members are asked to keep a keen eye on their in-boxes for Action Alerts and other calls for help. In addition to the phantom UI bill mentioned above, stopping six particularly harmful measures, which can be read in the Bad and Ugly sections in this Good, Bad, and Ugly link, is extremely urgent.
NFIB California in the News
- State Director John Kabateck was interviewed by national network NTD-TV about the effect rampant retail theft is having on small business owners. His remarks start at the 2:45-minute mark.
— “You have to understand that [for] these mom-and-pop owners, these businesses are everything that they have created from the ground up, and it is their financial livelihood. So, when somebody breaks in, when they start taking things, this is their livelihood. They put their mortgages on the line, they are often in debt, and this is the very survival of them and their families, and their employees.”
- Kabateck’s comments on the release of NFIB’s latest Small Business Economic Trends report were reported throughout the state including by the Lassen County Times, Riverbank News, Oakdale Leader, and the Escalon Times.
— “A lot of what it will take to move small-business owners across the nation from this current era of just coping to one of thriving will depend on what Congress does with the Small Business Deduction on their federal tax forms: to let it expire or to make it permanent. Closer to home, our Legislature has already rendered its decision on small business by doing absolutely nothing about its outstanding loan debt with the federal government over the unemployment insurance trust fund.”
Not So Fast into That Future
- “The California Energy Commission voted Wednesday to extend the life of three gas power plants along the state’s southern coast through 2026, postponing a shutoff deadline previously set for the end of this year. The vote would keep the decades-old facilities — Ormond Beach Generating Station, AES Alamitos and AES Huntington Beach — open so they can run during emergencies.
- “The state is at a greater risk of blackouts during major events when many Californians simultaneously crank up their air conditioning, such as a blistering heat wave.” — The Orange County Register.
National
Highlights from NFIB Legislative Program Manager Caitlin Lanzara’s weekly report
- On August 9, NFIB announced a new issue campaign that will run throughout August, urging members of Congress to pass the Main Street Tax Certainty Act. The campaign involves a multi-state paid media advertising campaign including video, radio, and digital ads.
— NFIB President Brad Close said, “If Congress takes no action, the 20% Small Business Deduction will expire in 2025, imposing a massive tax hike on a majority of America’s small businesses. While Members of Congress are back in their states and districts in August, small business owners want them to understand the importance of making the 20% Small Business Deduction permanent.” Read NFIB’s press release here.
— Politico highlighted NFIB’s August Recess issue campaign: “The National Federation of Independent Business is going up with digital and video ads in 20 states urging lawmakers to back the Main Street Tax Certainty Act, which would make permanent the 20% deduction for qualified pass-through businesses.”
- New Form I-9 Available Now
— U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has published a new Form I-9 (edition date 8/1/2023). The new form has been shortened to one page and streamlined to include clearer instructions. Additionally, employers enrolled in E-Verify will have an optional alternative procedure for document examination by remote examination of Form I-9 documents.
— Employers may continue to use the older version of the Form I-9 (edition date 10/21/19) through October 31, 2023. Starting November 1, 2023, all employers must use the new Form I-9.
Next Main Street Minute August 21.
