Welcome to the July 10-14 edition of the Main Street Minute from your small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento.

• Small businesses received some good news Thursday (July 6), when the Supreme Court of California ruled in favor of them and all businesses (with some qualification) in the case of Kuciemba v. Victory Woodworks, Inc., which NFIB and its coalition partners filed an amicus brief in and had its lead attorney contribute some oral arguments.

• Wrote Justice Carol J. Corrigan, “In conclusion, we answer the Ninth Circuit’s questions as follows: (1) If an employee contracts COVID-19 at the workplace and brings the virus home to a spouse, the derivative injury rule of California’s workers’ compensation law does not bar a spouse’s negligence claim against the employer. (2) An employer does not owe a duty of care under California law to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to employees’ household members.” (Pages 48-49)

• NFIB California thanks its NFIB Small Business Legal Center teammates for their assistance in this case and congratulate them on their winning streak in the U.S. Supreme Court during its recently concluded session.

• This coming Friday (July 14) is the deadline for policy committees to pass bills that came over from the other house. It’s also the day the Legislature breaks for a monthlong summer recess.

• Click here to see the latest progress, or regress, of the 51 bills NFIB narrowed from the 2,938 introduced this year as being of direct benefit or harm to small businesses. Twenty-four are dead, 26 are still alive, and one was signed into law.

• Could the dead list grow to 25? NFIB would be happy to see the number increase and the prognosis for AB 1213 (Ortega) is not looking good. This bill would require that if a denial of treatment requested by a treating physician is subsequently overturned by independent medical review or by the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board, any temporary disability paid or owing from the date of the denial until the treatment is authorized would not be included in the calculation of the aggregate disability payments. Status: Passed to the Senate. Placed on Senate Appropriations Committee suspense file.

— As NFIB’s chief legislative advocate, Tim Taylor, commented about AB 1213, “Suspense is the purgatory of the Appropriations Committee. It’s where fiscal bills go that meet a certain monetary threshold. Technically, those bills can be taken off Suspense but that only happens during an Appropriations Committee hearing. So, while this bill is not technically dead, it sure as hell has no pulse whatsoever.”

• Sadly, only two of the 17 bills, from the list of 51, NFIB identified as helpful to small businesses are still alive, but they are progressing quite nicely.

— AB 1355 (Valencia) — Authorizes employer to supply individuals with electronic statements or materials relating to claims for benefits if the individual opts into receipt of electronic statements or materials. NFIB’s letter of support can be read here. Status: Passed to the Senate. Awaiting final Senate Passage.

— Assembly Constitutional Resolution 80 (Villapudua) — This measure would declare May as Small Business Month. NFIB’s coalition letter of support can be read here. Status: Passed to Senate. Awaiting final Senate passage.

• As we mentioned in last week’s Main Street Minute, an Action Alert was sent to the membership asking them to register their opposition to Senate Constitutional Amendment 7, which would “ensure that all Californians have the right to join a union.”

• This week, look for one asking NFIB members to register their opposition to Senate Bill 616, which would double paid sick leave requirements on small business owners.

• Members who did not receive the Action Alert for SCA 7 or want to make sure they get the one for SB 616 should send an email to NFIB Grassroots Manager Taylor Criddle at taylor.criddle@nfib.org.

• “A push to force California’s huge public pension funds to sell off their holdings in fossil fuel companies is being put off until next year,” reports CalMatters, “The bill would require the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and California State Teachers Retirement System to sell holdings in the 200 largest publicly traded fossil fuel companies by July 2031, but Bloomberg reports that it’s now a two-year bill that won’t get a final vote until 2024.”

• The bill referred to above (SB 252) is not part of NFIB California’s agenda. Just passing this information along.

• The U.S. Small Business Administration’s top leader and NFIB California State Director John Kabateck discussed issues in Sacramento last Thursday. Story here.

• Speaking of Kabateck, after his SBA meeting, he provided KCRA-TV 3 in Sacramento his thoughts on a Rancho Cordova bike shop that has set up a GoFundMe page.

• Last Thursday (July 6), the NFIB Research Center released its monthly Jobs Report, showing, seasonally adjusted, a net 36% of owners reporting raising compensation in June and a net 22% of owners planning to raise compensation in the next three months.

• Happy 50th. In October, NFIB’s Small Business Economic Trends report, also known as the Optimism Index, celebrates its 50th year. In this one-page history of the SBET, members might be interested to know how it started and what distinguishes it from all other business surveys.

— By the way, the latest SBET comes out tomorrow, July 11.