Welcome to the January 8 12 edition of the NFIB California Main Street Minute from your small business advocacy team in Sacramento.

Supporting NFIB & Small Biz to the “Max”

• NFIB California opened the New Year with a new chairman of its Leadership Council. Max A. Ordonez is president and CEO of Whittier based IMM Management, a fractional CFO firm, specializing in financial solutions and customized growth strategies for small and medium sized private and public sector companies, and he has been a member of NFIB since 2008.

• Check out the news release NFIB sent out to read more about Max. The political industry in Sacramento’s must read, The Capitol Morning Report, published the news.

Please Vote Your State Ballot

• NFIB’s California members were sent their state ballots for 2024 late last week. Please take a minute or two to respond to it, which will help your advocacy team in Sacramento prioritize the small business lobbying agenda for the year. This year’s ballot asks four questions, including single payer health care, reduced workweek, greenhouse gas emissions, and voter approval on taxes. Read them here.

Are Retail Theft Solutions Gaining Traction?

• NFIB California complimented Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas for forming the Select Committee on Retail Theft, which held its first meeting December 18. But we remain to be sold if it will accomplish anything or if it’s nothing more than well designed window dressing.

• That’s why it was encouraging to see Assemblyman Carlos Villapudua willing to tackle the issue head on by whipping up support for a referendum that would undo the worst effects of Prop. 47.

• “I’ve seen it done in my hometown of Stockton. Enough is enough,” reported ABC 10 in a story that can be found on his official webpage. “For us, it’s all hands on deck. We need to do something. We should have done it yesterday, but we’re on it today … A s a person who had a business years back, I know what it takes to open those doors. I know how hard it is.”

• A day later, the Washington Examiner, in a story also found on Villapudua’s official webpage, reported, “The center left Democrat’s ‘groundbreaking referendum’ will take aim at Proposition 47, a law passed in 2014 that recategorized a number of felonies as misdemeanors … ‘As well intentioned as Prop 47 was, we need to adjust to the reality that it has created in California. Businesses, employees, and customers have been put in harm’s way due to today’s aggressive nature of retail theft and the onslaught of incidents. We need to do more to retain our businesses, maintain economic stability, and protect our communities.’”

• For now, NFIB, which is a member of the Californians Against Retail and Residential Theft coalition, will keep hope alive. Two bipartisan, similar measures failed to go anywhere last year, after also making some promising noise.

State Budget

• This Wednesday (January 10) is the deadline for Gov. Gavin Newsom to present his spending plan for the 2024 2025 Fiscal Year. All eyes will be on Sacramento to see how a $68 billion deficit will be accommodated.

• Word in the halls of the Capitol is that progressives want to seize this opportunity to close that gap with higher taxes – possibly a “wealth tax,” sales tax on services, or more. Regardless, NFIB will again be front and center opposing these regressive, onerous costs on small business.

• A revised state budget, based on April 15 tax returns, will be submitted in May. A final budget is scheduled to begin July 1.

Six Assembly members Re Elected

• The Secretary of State came out with her Certified List of Candidates in the closing days of December, showing six current members of the State Assembly having won re election already, by not drawing an opponent. They are:

— Cecilia Aguiar Curry (Democrat), Assembly District 4
— Liz Ortega (Democrat), Assembly District 20
— Vince Fong (Republican), Assembly District 32
— James Ramos (Democrat), Assembly District 45
— Mike Gipson (Democrat), Assembly District 65
— Chris Ward (Democrat), Assembly District 78

• As most people are aware, Fong is also a candidate to succeed former U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the Bakersfield area 20th Congressional District. Fong is a proven friend of small business.

• Aguiar Curry took the time to meet with NFIB members during our Leadership Council Day at the Capitol last year and sincerely listened to our concerns. Ramos has been a guest on an NFIB California Podcast, discussing his small business past, and he also authored small business legislation several years ago that NFIB co sponsored but was unfortunately rejected by the Legislature.

• As for the other re elected Assembly members, NFIB has its work cut out for it in getting them to be more supportive of small business.

Big Year in Media for NFIB California

• NFIB California thanks our members who volunteered to speak to the media in 2023. With their help, NFIB California was mentioned in 315 media stories for a publicity value of $440,000, according to the Cision media database.

• Thanks to pick up by Yahoo, NFIB’s remarks on extending unemployment benefits to workers who voluntarily go on strike had a reach of 136,475,913 people, and that’s not counting the audience reach of Fox, MSN, and other media that published NFIB’s remarks. The No. 2 story was on retail theft, which reached 64,480,000 people on MSN alone.

• Click here for a representative sample of media hits in 2023.

Calendar

• January 10, deadline for Gov. Gavin Newsom to unveil his 2024 2025 budget plan.
• February 5, counties begin mailing ballots to voters.
• February 16, deadline to introduce bills in the Legislature
• February 20, last day to register for the March Primary Election
• March 5, Primary Election Day
• May 24 deadline for bills to pass their house of origin (Assembly, Senate)
• 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 December 19, NFIB’s Jeff Brabant was quoted in The Center Square in an article on the upcoming increased requirements from FinCEN mandating increased beneficial ownership reporting: “NFIB is pushing for a full repeal of this legislation. We feel it’s unnecessary; however, administratively there is a chance that FinCEN delays it, and there’s also a chance that Congress delays it for one year. The statute allowed for up to two years for reporting for companies once this is passed on January 1; however, FinCEN chose one year. So FinCEN can choose to delay it another year and that’s something we hope they do.”

— NFIB sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Treasury, view here.

— Rick Scott (R FL) cited NFIB research in a press release regarding efforts to delay the FinCEN rule: “Unfortunately, FinCEN is woefully behind in educating small business owners and stakeholders of their new obligations under the CTA that begin in just a few short weeks. In fact, a National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) survey found that 90% of respondents were entirely unfamiliar with these reporting requirements. Even more concerning is that the CTA has civil and criminal penalties of up to $10,000 and two years of jail time for failure to comply.”

• On December 27, NFIB’s Research Center released the third credit focused survey in a series first started in April 2023 assessing small business owners’ banking and financing activities.

• On January 4, NFIB released the latest monthly jobs report, which showed labor quality remains a top concern for small business owners. Forty percent of owners have job openings they could not fill.

Next Main Street Minute January 15.