From your small business advocacy team in Sacramento
Welcome to the March 18-22 edition of the NFIB California Main Street Minute from your small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento.
The Governor
- Today (Monday, March 18) was to have been the date Gov. Gavin Newsom delivered his State of the State address, but on Saturday, his office announced a delay to another unspecified time. The reason:
- “Although Prop. 1’s opponents have conceded that the measure is likely to pass, the 0.01% margin is not exactly the resounding victory that the governor undoubtedly hoped to tout in his State of the State speech,” reported The Sacramento Bee. “As of Saturday morning, fewer than 20,000 votes separated the ‘Yes’ from the ‘No’ votes, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. No news agencies, including the Associated Press, have called the measure, which requires a simple majority.”
The Legislature
- As mentioned in last week’s Main Street Minute, this is a quiet-before-the-storm period in the Legislature. Expect more inaction this week before assembly members and senators begin their Spring Break March 21, returning on April 1, the start date for a frenzy of legislative activity that will occupy the time up to the August 31 adjournment.
- Spring Break does provide an opportunity to visit lawmakers while they’re back in their districts and discuss small businesses’ concerns with pending legislation, which can be found in this updated bill list and which leads off with the good-for-small-business bills, followed by the bad ones.
- If NFIB can help facilitate a district office meeting with you and your state legislators, please contact Grassroots Manager Taylor Criddle at [email protected].
The Ballot Initiatives
- NFIB California Leadership Council Chair Max A. Ordonez took part in a news conference (March 13) announcing the official launch of the campaign for November ballot passage of the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act.
- NFIB is proud to support this important measure to give small business owners, and voters, greater accountability and more transparency with how our tax dollars are spent.
Successful Primary Election for NFIB CA PAC
- The NFIB CA PAC endorsed 22 incumbents and candidates running in open seats, five for the State Senate, 17 for the California Assembly.
- 20 of the 22 small business-endorsed candidates advanced from the primary election – a 91%-win rate.
- Onward to the General Election on Nov. 5!
Fast Food Council Holds First Meeting
- The first of its kind in the nation Fast Food Council held its inaugural meeting Friday, March 15, in Oakland.
- “On September 28, 2023, Governor Newsom signed into law AB 1228, the Fast Food Restaurant Industry legislation that raises the hourly minimum wage rate for certain fast food workers to $20 effective April 1, 2024,” according to the state Dept. of Industrial Relations (DIR), under whose watch the council will operate. “In addition, the legislation establishes a Fast Food Council within DIR to establish an hourly minimum wage for fast food restaurant employees and develop standards, rules, and regulations for the fast food industry.”
- Nothing in California is ever as simple and straightforward. AB 1228 is the revised AB 257, which The Sacamento Bee points out,
- “The governor signed Assembly Bill 257 in 2022 to create the the council, and fast food companies and franchise owners quickly moved to challenge it with a 2024 ballot measure campaign.
- “Labor advocates, mostly represented by Service Employees International Union, and industry leaders in 2023 brokered a compromise that led fast food companies to drop the initiative to repeal AB 257.
- “[Assemblyman Chris] Holden picked up AB 257 in 2022 from former San Diego Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher after an earlier version died in 2021. Last year’s deal required him to revise his 2023 follow-up measure, Assembly Bill 1228. The bill would have held fast food companies and franchise owners jointly liable for workplace abuses.
- “Holden and labor advocates agreed to remove joint liability in exchange for a $20-per-hour fast food worker minimum wage and allowing a weakened version of the council to move forward.”
- NFIB fiercely opposed both iterations of this terrible law. More about AB 1228, the Panera bread scandal that ensued, and comment from NFIB State Director John Kabateck can be read in this story in The Center Square.
- Oh, and one more thing. According to The Bee article, “Workers who do not think they are being paid enough after the new minimum wage law takes effect on April 1 will be able to file lawsuits under the Private Attorneys General Act, which allows employees to receive civil penalties for labor code violations. Workers could also report labor law violations to the Labor Commissioner’s Office.”
- Related: Restaurant workers in California don’t want what SEIU is selling.
“We further asked these workers for their impressions on the SEIU-endorsed $20 fast food minimum wage, soon to take effect in California. Specifically, we asked what impacts the policy would have on their jobs. (Respondents could pick multiple answers.) Perhaps surprisingly, only 41 percent said the $20 minimum wage would lead to higher total earnings. By contrast, 51 percent responded that the policy would lead to fewer hours or shifts scheduled, 40 percent said it would lead to staffing cuts, and 39 percent it would cause employers to hire less. A strong majority (60 percent) said it would lead to higher prices, and nearly 1 in 10 said it would cause business closures.”
- NFIB fought against AB 257, AB 1228, and has been a long-throbbing thorn in the side of the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA). Although not eventually prevailing, we will continue to add our call-outs and arguments to the debate until such a time when the punishment inflicted by these measures becomes too embarrassing for even their supporters to maintain. Think Panera bread if you don’t think this will have any effect.
Happiness Just Ahead
- For you sourpusses among the Main Street Minute readership, just hold on a bit longer. Help is on the way The freshly minted Assembly Select Committee on Happiness and Public Policy Outcomes held its first meeting last Tuesday (March 12), and CalMatters’ Lynn La provided a glimpse and flavor of what future meetings might hold.
- “At the committee’s first meeting today, [Assemblyman Anthony] Rendon said he was inspired to take on the topic after watching the 2011 documentary ‘Happy’ 14 times in a two-day period. This committee is at least 11 years in the making, he said.
- “Roko Belic, the filmmaker and first witness in the three-hour hearing, said from his visits to 14 countries, the keys to happiness are nurturing strong interpersonal and communal relationships; leading a life that includes meaning, play or novelty; and a sense of gratitude. Other experts also mentioned economic stability (but not necessarily economic wealth); a connection to the environment; and resilience.”
- God forbid anyone should get wealthy from his or her labors. You’ll be met with furrowed brows and scowls from a not-happy Committee on Happiness.
First, They Came for Your Skittles. Now, They Want Your Fruit Loops
- “Get ready for another food fight in the Legislature,” reports The Sacramento Bee,
- “as lawmakers weigh a potential ban on certain chemical food additives from being used in food served in California schools.
- “It’s a follow-up effort for Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, from last year’s successful AB 418, the California Food Safety Act, which banned a number of chemicals from being used in food sold in California — the infamous “Skittles ban” bill, which didn’t ban Skittles but did ban a chemical ingredient found in the popular candy.
- “ … While Gabriel stressed that his bill [AB 2316] doesn’t ban any particular food products, it would de facto ban the sale of products including Fruit Loops and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos from being served in California schools, unless the makers of those products substituted the prohibited chemicals with safer alternatives, he said.”
- Does NFIB have a position on this? No. But it does give us an opportunity remind policymakers of our one-page explanation. Why Doesn’t NFIB Take a Position on This Issue?
Calendar
- March 21-31 Legislature on Spring Recess
- May revise of the governor’s 2024-2025 proposed state budget. Date TBD
- May 24 deadline for bills to pass their house of origin (Assembly, Senate)
- June 15, midnight, constitutional deadline to pass 2024-2025 state budget
- June 27 deadline for ballot measure to qualify for November
- August 31 deadline for bills to have passed Legislature and sent to governor
- September 30 deadline for governor to sign bills into law
- November 5, General Election Day
National
Highlights from NFIB Legislative Program Manager Caitlin Lanzara’s weekly report
- On March 15, the NFIB Research Center released the February SBET survey, which showed that 23% of small business owners reported that inflation was their single most important business problem in operating their business, replacing labor quality as the top problem. Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg said, “While inflation pressures have eased since peaking in 2021, small business owners are still managing the elevated costs of higher prices and interest rates.”
- On March 15, NFIB signed a coalition letter opposing the “Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act,” the bill would reduce the standard workweek from 40 to 32 hours.
- On March 15, NFIB State Government Relations released the latest SGR Connection.
Next Main Street Minute March 25.
