From your small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento
Welcome to the May 6-10 edition of the NFIB California Main Street Minute from your small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento.
Have You Complied with the New Law Yet?
- Businesses have until July 1 to have their workplace violence prevention plans in place and viewable to employees and anyone else who asks.
- If you haven’t written one yet and have questions, NFIB California is hosting a special webinar, free to our members on Tuesday, May 14, at 1 p.m. Our special guest will be attorney Hannah Sweiss with the law firm Fisher Phillips. Her extensive knowledge of employment issues is impressive and can be read here.
- Passed last year Senate Bill 553 requires employers to establish, implement and maintain a workplace violence prevention plan and record information in a violent incident log, the post-incident response, and internal workplace violence injury investigation. The log must include: the date, time and location of an incident, a detailed description of an incident, a classification of who committed an incident, the type of incident, including whether an incident involved physical, verbal, sexual or animal attacks, the consequences of an incident such as medical treatment received, whether security or law enforcement was contacted and the contact information of the individual completing the violent incident log.
- In early March of this year, Cal/OSHA finally came out with a model Workplace Violence Prevention Plan, but even those small-business owners who are aware of it still have questions.
- Don’t wait until the last minute. This is a compliance headache that is due soon. There is no grace period. Join us on May 14. Look for NFIB’s invitation coming to your inbox this week or click here to register now.
- Email NFIB Grassroots Manager Taylor Criddle with any questions you may have about the webinar, [email protected].
We Need Your Input
- Also coming your way today (May 6) is a special member ballot on two statewide November ballot initiatives on rent control and the minimum wage. We are asking your opinion if voters should approve them. As with our regular state and federal yearly ballots, background information and opponents and proponents arguments are included.
- Please vote your ballot. NFIB is a member-driven organization that bases our lobbying positions on what our members tell us are important to them.
Victory on UI Bills–But a Doozy Remains
- We’re happy to report some good news. Thanks in part to NFIB’s and its coalition partners’ persistent lobbying efforts, two bills, one raising unemployment insurance benefits and commensurately taxes (Senate Bill 1434) and one (Senate Bill 227) extending UI benefits to undocumented workers are both dead* for the session.
- That leaves only Senate Bill 1116, giving unemployment benefits to striking workers, to deal with. SB 1116 gets its second hearing today (May 6) in the Senate Appropriations Committee beginning at 10 a.m. in Room 2200 at 1021 O St. It’s identical to the same bill Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed last year.
Other Legislation
- For a brief spurt, it looked as if San Francisco Assemblyman Matt Haney might give San Jose Assemblyman Ash Kalra a run for his money as the most annoying, anti-small-business lawmaker in Sacramento.
- As befits a man who, as he says on his official website, “has dedicated his tenure in public service to equity and social justice issues. To confront racism and systemic bias in our systems of justice,” Kalra jumped out to an early lead with his unaffordable single-payer health-care plan (AB 2200) and proceeded to lengthen his lead with AB 1516, a study of the minimum wage, which can only mean ever higher ones, and AB 2288, expanding PAGA (sue your boss)
- Haney revved his engines with AB 2374, redefining the word ‘contractor,’ and not in a way beneficial for contractors, and AB 2751, the highly irritating measure allowing employees to disconnect from any communication from their employers after work hours.
- Four of the five bills mentioned above are still alive, AB 1516 has even advanced to the Senate, but who knows what’ll happen to AB 2374, which was placed in that great black hole called the suspense file.
- Finally, last week’s Main Street Minute mentioned Assembly Bill 2654’s failure to get past its first committee. The measure would prohibit nondisclosure agreements from being part of legislative negotiations. We failed to mention it was granted reconsideration, but as of the writing, no date has been set. State Director John Kabateck had this comment on the whole mess.
- NFIB’s latest bill list with all the measures we’re fighting for or against can be read here. The list will be updated post-May 24, when the deadline for measures to get out of their house of origin passes. In a hurry? We’ve condensed the list into a Good, Bad and Ugly
Big Case Before the California Supreme Court
- This Wednesday (May 8), the Supreme Court of California will hear oral arguments on the drive by Gov. Gavin Newsom to have The Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act removed from the November ballot.
- NFIB California came out early in support of the Act, arguing in this news release, “’Let me tell you who the best salespeople for this ballot initiative are,’ said Tim Taylor, NFIB’s legislative director, ‘the crowd that turned a $100 billion state budget surplus into a $73 billion deficit in only two years; the crowd that made us one of only two states that still hasn’t paid the federal government back for the loans it took out to shore up its unemployment insurance trust fund; the crowd that has given us the highest gas taxes in the nation. On and on, I could go.’”
… But Wait, There’s More
- Reported Politico last Thursday (May 2), “The California Supreme Court has set May 21 to hear oral arguments in a labor-backed challenge to Proposition 22, which Uber et al funded to avoid reclassifying workers as employees. An appeals court largely upheld the initiative last year.”
- After $224 million was spent, the most for any initiative in California history, Prop. 22 passed by 58% of the vote in November 2020. It has, up until now, exempted rideshare and food delivery drivers from having to labor under Assembly Bill 5, the biggest assault on independent contracting also in California history.
- NFIB California has been one of the louder voices against AB 5 and the California Supreme Court’s Dynamex decision and its ABC standard, but it did not endorse Prop. 22 because it did not exempt all independent contractors, just a few. Still, we hope Uber and others prevail.
NFIB State Director Delivers Keynote Address at SBA Luncheon
- NFIB California State Director John Kabateck delivered the keynote address at the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Northern California Awards luncheon on Friday (May 3) in Sacramento. Full story with photos can be read here.
Back to the Office
- “The era of remote-only work is over,” says research firm Morning Consult in its State of Workers 2024 Report. “More than 2 in 5 workers at the manager level and above said their companies have brought workers in to do more in-person work, and among those who said they have mandated as such, a majority (69%) said that the impact has been positive.”
So, What Could Go Wrong?
- They’re clean, and they help “communities and schools by boosting property tax revenues.” So, why not give them tax breaks to locate in your state.
- “From the outside, data centers can resemble ordinary warehouses. But inside, the windowless structures can house acres of computer servers used to power everything from social media to banking. The centers suck up massive amounts of energy to keep data moving and water to keep servers from overheating.
- “’It is heart-stopping — just the scale at which these things are growing and the power they’re sucking up,’ said Kendl Kobbervig, the advocacy and communications director at Clean Virginia … She said the state must address how data centers could undercut its clean energy goals and how the industry is affecting the utility bills of everyday households and small businesses.
- “Some states, including Maryland and Mississippi, continue to pursue incentives to land new data centers. But in other states, the growth of the industry is raising alarms over the reliability and affordability of local electric grids, and fears that utilities will meet the demand by leaning more heavily on fossil fuel generation rather than renewables.”
- No mention of California in this informative article but it’s a concern here, too.
Calendar
- 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. Last day for proponents of a qualified ballot initiative to withdraw it.
- 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 May 1, as part of the Small Business Deduction campaign, NFIB VP for Government Relations Jeff Brabant sent up a message to Capitol Hill encouraging offices to cosponsor the Main Street Tax Certainty Act and explaining that taxes will increase on over 30 million small businesses if Congress fails to act.
- On May 2, NFIB Principal of Federal Government Relations Andrea McGee wrote an op-ed for the Washington Examiner on the importance of “right to repair” legislation for small businesses, she stated:
- “The sooner Congress acts, the better. Without reform, some 230,000 auto repair shops are looking down a dead-end street, and millions of other small businesses and consumers could face increased costs and fewer options to repair their vehicles.”
- On April 30, NFIB submitted a Statement for the Record to the U.S. House Committee on Small Business for the hearing titled, “Under the Microscope: Examining FinCEN’s Implementation of the Corporate Transparency Act,” regarding the burdensome beneficial ownership reporting requirement and the need for Congress to repeal the poorly written, ambiguous Corporate Transparency Act (CTA).
- For a quick summary of the new DOL overtime rule and NFIB’s actions to fight the rule (past and future), check out NFIB’s e-news article. Also, in Wednesday’s webinar, the attorneys from Littler offered a preview of legal challenges.
Want more news from Washington, D.C., and sooner? Check the ‘News’ tab on the NFIB main webpage throughout the week.
Next Main Street Minute May 13.
