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August 28, 2023
NFIB California Main Street Minute, August 28-September 1
Welcome to the August 28-September 1 edition of the Main Street Minute from your small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento.
UI Benefits for Striking Workers- The big news of last week was the unveiling of the new Senate Bill 799, which would grant unemployment benefits to workers out on strike.
- “Originally about prison visitation, this measure has been gutted and amended to enable workers who have been on strike for more than two weeks to receive unemployment benefits,” reported CalMatters. “Led by Democratic Sen. Anthony Portantino of Glendale and supported by the California Labor Federation, the measure was granted on Thursday a rules waiver to proceed through the Assembly.”
- Reaction from the business community, including NFIB, was swift. “The business community was expecting this to happen, so it wasn’t a complete surprise,” said State Director John Kabateck in this news release picked up by media throughout state. “The most important thing everyone needs to know is the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund is fast approaching insolvency, and with it the ability to pay current unemployment benefits.”
- More widely covered was the quote Kabateck provided to the Associated Press for a story that ran in 134 media outlets across the nation. Taking issue with the comment businesses haven’t been paying enough into the UI trust fund, which is why it’s nearly bankrupt, “To allege that small business owners have not been paying their fair share is absurd and frankly insulting.”
- A business coalition NFIB is part of sent this letter of opposition to Portantino, pointing out, “By forcing employers to pay unemployment insurance (UI) payments to striking workers, SB 799 would also raise taxes on employers across California, overturn more than 70 years of precedent, and put California’s UI program at risk of violating federal law.”
- Look for an NFIB Action Alert being sent to members this week. Please use it to let your Assembly members and Senators know how you feel about SB 799.
- The addition SB 799 brings to 57 the number of bills NFIB has been tracking since the start of the year. Click here to review the list. This Thursday, August 31, will be the day of decision for the bills on the list noted as being on either the Assembly Appropriations Committee’s suspense file or the Senate Appropriations Committee’s suspense file. That is the day it will be decided whether they advance off the file or remain there entombed for the remaining two weeks of the 2023 session.
- NFIB members Beth and Marshall Booth describe what it’s like dealing with the California Coastal Commission. “Even if you’re allowed to do something per law, they will punitively say ‘don’t think so.’ Well show me why I can’t do that. ‘Nope, don’t have to. Sorry, move along. Next!’” Click here to listen to this riveting account of one state agency.
- “A coalition led by the California Business Roundtable has qualified an initiative for the 2024 ballot that would require voter approval of Legislature-passed taxes and impose a two-thirds approval margin on local levies. That’s anathema to organized labor and local government groups who fear being starved of vital operating revenue.
- “Now the Business Roundtable’s foes are responding in kind. Assembly member Chris Ward – with the support of SEIU California and the imprimatur of Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas – is pushing a constitutional amendment that would say any ballot initiative that changes voter thresholds must pass by that same, proposed new threshold.
- “In other words: If business groups want to require that two-thirds of voters approve local taxes, they’d need to convince…two-thirds of voters.”
- On August 24, NFIB released Episode 16 of the “Small Business Rundown” podcast, featuring U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar and NFIB President Brad Close discussing the importance of passing the Main Street Tax Certainty Act.
- On August 23, NFIB submitted a Statement for the Record for the Senate Small Business Committee hearing titled, “One Size Does Not Fit All: Understanding the Importance of Rightsizing Regulations for Small Businesses.”
— In the statement, NFIB’s Vice President of Federal Government Relations Kevin Kuhlman, emphasized the unprecedented pace of regulations coming out of Washington and the need for Congress to provide relief for small businesses from the increasing regulatory burdens and red tape.
- On August 21, NFIB released the latest banking survey, Reuters reported: “More than half of U.S. small business owners believe the economy is already in a recession, marking a slight decrease between July and April, despite most firms reporting their own financial condition was strong, a survey released on Monday showed. The survey, conducted in July from the National Federation of Independent Business, focused mainly on small businesses’ views on the state of banking and their credit needs, and also showed small businesses are much less worried about the health of their bank than they were in the immediate aftermath of this spring’s bank failures, including that of Silicon Valley Bank.”

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