Welcome to the August 18-22 edition of the Main Street Minute from your small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento.

The Legislature

Lawmakers return from a month-long summer recess today (August 18) and will be in high gear until their September 12 interim recess less than a month away. As currently scheduled, the interim recess will go until January 5, 2026.

Of the 57 bills NFIB has targeted for opposition, support, or monitoring, 25 are still alive (four good-for-small-business ones; 19 bad ones, two monitored). Two bills supported by NFIB, Assembly Bill 609 (Wicks) and Senate Bill 607 (Wiener), both curbing the use of environmental delays on housing construction, were folded into the 2025-2026 state budget and are now law.

The four good-for-small-business bills still alive are Assembly Bill 265 (Caloza), establishing the Small Business Recovery Fund Act; Assembly Bill 671 (Wicks), streamlining the approval process relating to restaurants; Senate Bill 72 (Caballero) on the state’s future water needs; and Senate Bill 690 (Caballero) would protect employers from frivolous shakedown lawsuits stemming from online advertising.

Three of 19 bad-for-small-business bills NFIB is currently adding a little extra opposition oomph to are:

— Assembly Bill 446 (Ward) is an Artificial Intelligence surveillance pricing measure that is ostensibly designed to prevent merchants from using AI to allow price increases based upon a customer’s protected characteristics, including AI’s assessment of earnings or net worth. NFIB does not support such practices; however, we oppose the bill as the remedy exceeds the purpose. The bill would not allow discount pricing on certain items when ‘aggregated data’ is used.

— Senate Bill 512 (Perez) would undermine the two-thirds vote requirement for special taxes, which is at the heart of Proposition 13. Localities are playing loose with the vote threshold by using work-arounds that have advanced tax measures through initiatives to bypass the two-thirds vote requirement.

— Senate Bill 261 (Wahab) would require the Labor Commissioner to post every order, decision or award (ODA) online for public view unless under appeal. This requirement would attempt to shame employers who are trying to resolve disputes in good faith on equal footing with those who have maliciously withheld wages or worse. Additionally, it would effectively create an expanded shopping list for trial court attorneys mining for PAGA lawsuits.

Calling on NFIB members

During these next frenzied days leading up to the September 12 adjournment, NFIB might be sending its member some Action Alerts. Please use them as soon as you receive them.
The Power of the Small Business Voice is unmatched by any other group and California’s senators and assemblymembers know this.

2026 Ballot Initiative Update

“At this point during the last election cycle, roughly 20 measures had been filed with the Attorney General. Thus far, only 12 have been filed,” reports Swing Strategies, one of the state’s leading ballot measure campaign firms.

“However, we expect the pace to accelerate in the coming weeks as proponents have a rough deadline to file initiatives by the end of August to receive the full 180 days to gather signatures. That means the next month is likely to be busy — and we’re already tracking several major initiatives that could reshape California’s political and policy landscape.”

Of the 12 already filed, two have already qualified, six have been cleared for circulation, and four are pending title and summary. The link above has a description of them.

Proposition 13

You would think something passed 47 years ago and which has resisted attempts to undermine it ever since would put paid to the matter of its popularity. Not so. Reports Swing in its ‘Waiting in the Wings’ section of its latest report, “Split Roll Reboot: After the defeat of Prop 15 in 2020, which sought to revise Prop 13 property tax protections, the same coalition is rumored to be considering another attempt at a ‘split roll’ tax structure.”

On a related matter, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has filed three versions of its ballot initiative, The Local Taxpayer Protection Act to Save Proposition 13.

Calendar

— August 18: Legislature reconvenes from summer recess

— August 26: NFIB California’s Leadership Day at the Capitol

— August 29: Last day for fiscal committees to hear and report bills to the floor

— September 1: Labor Day. Legislature not in session

— September 9: California turns 175 years old

— September 12, 2025-January 5, 2026: Interim recess of the 2025-2026 session of the California State Legislature

— October 15: Last day for governor to sign or veto bills passed before September 12.

National

Highlights from Federal Government Relations Principal Louis Bertolotti’s weekly report

— NFIB sent a statement following the recent decision in the case Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System regarding debit card swipe fees. Our stance was reported on by Small Business Trends.

— The NFIB Research Center released the July SBET survey, which found that the Small Business Optimism Index rose 1.7 points to 100.3, slightly above the 52-year average of 98. Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg said, “Optimism rose slightly in July with owners reporting more positive expectations on business conditions and expansion opportunities. While uncertainty is still high, the next 6 months will hopefully offer business owners more clarity… labor quality has become the top issue on Main Street.”

Next Main Street Minute: August 25. All Main Streets Minutes can be found on the NFIB website here. Pull down the California tab in the upper-right-hand corner.