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NFIB California Main Street Minute, November 13-17

NFIB California Main Street Minute, November 13-17

November 13, 2023

NFIB California Main Street Minute, November 13-17

Welcome to the November 13-17 edition of the Main Street Minute from your small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento.
NFIB Members in the News
  • NFIB California members quoted by CBS News and The Wall Street Journal.
  • The media love hearing directly from small business owners for stories they are working on, and NFIB is proud to be the conduit linking reporters to members. NFIB California would like to thank members Denise Duncan, owner of AT Industrial Products in Pomona, and Nick Payzant, owner of Cerna Healthcare in Irvine, for stepping up to answer questions posed by CBS News for a story on high interest rates (With interest rates unchanged, small businesses continue to struggle) and by The Wall Street Journal for a November 4-5, front-page story on hiring and a cooling economy.

“I can’t grow my business and I can’t hire people or relocate to a bigger facility,” Duncan told reporter Jo Ling Kent for a CBS Mornings Money Watch segment.

“Here, as a small business owner, I think gas, trash, my utilities have all gone up. My insurances have gone up by 22%.”

  • Meanwhile, Payzant weighed in on job growth and the cooling economy, telling WSJ reporters David Harrison and Nick Timiraos:

“’Last year was a very tight labor market. We had a lot of trouble but this year it’s gotten better,’ said Nick Payzant who owns Cerna Healthcare, an in-home care agency based in Irvine, Calif.

“Since Covid hit, Payzant estimates he’s had to raise pay by about $5 an hour to between $18 and $20 to recruit new caregivers. Now, he said, with more people feeling financially constrained by high inflation, it hasn’t been so hard to fill shifts.

“’A lot of our employees who, say, five years ago, would do a 20- to 30-hour week are now doing 35- to 40-hour weeks,’ he said.”

  • NFIB California thanks all its members who have been willing to answer reporters’ questions. Would you like to be one? Drop an email to Grassroots Manager Taylor Criddle and Senior Media Manager Tony Malandra.
  • Rounding out a big media week for NFIB California, State Director John Kabateck appeared on The Howard Jarvis Radio Show on 790KABC in Los Angeles. In a segment titled, Taxpayers and Small Business Standing Together, Kabateck discusses the continued assaults on Proposition 13 with host Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

 

Retail Theft Update
  • When new Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas announced on October 25 that he had formed a Select Committee on Retail Theft, small businesses were glad to hear the Legislature finally acknowledging the magnitude of a problem that is all around them and on the news every night.
  • “Californians have had enough of these smash-and-grab crimes and shameless shoplifting incidents,” said Rivas in a news release. “They’re appalling and affect everyone. The Assembly understands we must do more to address root causes, protect businesses owners and fight criminal activity. It’s my expectation that the Retail Theft select committee will act with focus and urgency.”
  • The select committee is taking shape. It is now listed with other committees on the State Assembly’s website where you can find the names of the 11 Assembly members on it. The staff, hearings, and additional information links still need to be filled, but according to Assemblyman Rick Chavez Zbur, who will chair the committee, “Rivas wants them to work quickly to develop recommendations for lawmakers early in the year,” reports The Sacramento Bee.
  • Uh, oh.
  • Like Captain Louis Renault ordering his men to round up the usual suspects in the film, Casablanca, The Bee article does haul in a reliable academic who warns against the committee doing anything against Prop. 47, which raised the retail theft threshold to $950 from $400, and which many believe is a contributing factor to the spike in retail thefts. And Zbur himself muttered something about “root causes related to poverty.”
  • Still, for now, NFIB California commends Speaker Rivas for bringing this issue to the fore and will attempt to work with the committee to find a solution. Have a story about retail theft you’d like to share? No one speaks with more authority on small business issues than small business owners. If you’d like to possibly testify, email Grassroots Manager Taylor Criddle, or if you’d like to comment to the media, drop an email to Senior Media Manager Tony Malandra.
More UI
  • Last week’s Main Street Minute took a long look into the unemployment insurance issue. This week’s Main Street Minute would like to call attention to an extensive four-part investigation conducted by CalMatters that examines the whole fiasco from top to bottom.
  • “A year-long CalMatters investigation finds that the state was primed for disaster by years of missed red flags and failed reforms. Once COVID hit, public records and interviews reveal that California’s system was initially friendlier to scammers than to many real workers — and then the state got so aggressive that many workers struggled to prove their own identities. New financial reports requested by CalMatters show that amid the chaos, the EDD and its unemployment payment contractor Bank of America split a half a billion dollars in revenue, though the bank says it ultimately spent more to cover fraud losses. Another large EDD contractor, Deloitte, made more than a quarter of a billion dollars on tech contracts and emergency contracts to build systems that state reports say buckled during the pandemic.”
NFIB California PAC Committee Meets
  • Last Thursday (November 9), the political action committee (PAC) of NFIB California met to prepare for Primary Election activity. “If you’re waiting for the first quarter of the year to do anything, you will have missed the March 5 Primary,” warned Marty Wilson, executive vice president of public affairs for CalChamber and one of the meeting’s special guests. Tino Rossi, vice president of Swing Strategies, was the other special guest. Rossi provided background on November ballot initiatives and the one ballot initiative on the March Primary ballot.
  • NFIB California looks forward to engaging in key state races and ballot measures impacting our members and small business.
Calendar
  • September 14-November 8, signatures in lieu of filing fee period for those seeking elective office
  • December 28, Certified list of candidates for the March 5 Primary Election released
  • January 3, 2024, the Legislature reconvenes
  • February 5, counties begin mailing ballots
  • February, last day to register to vote in the March Primary
  • March 5, Primary Election Day
  • More deadlines here
National Highlights from NFIB Legislative Program Manager Caitlin Lanzara’s weekly report
  • On November 9, NFIB signed a letter supporting the Congressional Review Act to disapprove the NLRB Joint-Employer Rule. For more information, check out:

Politico’s article, “Downtown kicks into gear to block Biden joint employer rule.”

NFIB’s eNews article, “NLRB Final Joint-Employer Rule Expands Employer Liability Under the National Labor Relations Act.”

  • On November 8, NFIB sent a letter in support of S. 2033, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, which is a commonsense proposal that seeks to remedy conflicts of interest, foster increased choice in online services, and ensure a level playing field for small businesses and users of platforms covered by the legislation. In a recent Member Ballot, 84% of NFIB members favor Congress taking legislative action to control unfair and anticompetitive practices of large tech companies.
This Main Street Minute can also be read on the NFIB California webpage here. Next Main Street Minute November 20.  
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