Welcome to the July 7-11 edition of the Main Street Minute from your small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento.

VICTORY!

Thanks to NFIB members across the nation who kept up the fight from congressional session to congressional session, the 20% Small Business Tax Deduction will not expire at the end of this year and was made permanent the moment President Trump put his signature on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 4.

More in the National section below.

Your Voice Will be Heard Again, July 10

NFIB requested it, and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) granted it. This Thursday (July 10) in Sacramento, NFIB and other small and ethnic business groups will meet with Dr. Steven Cliff, CARB’s executive officer, to give him their opinions on how such CARB regulations as its 2022 Scoping Plan for Achieving Carbon Neutrality and Low Carbon Fuel Standard are working.

Once made, regulations by state agencies are off limits to legislative and gubernatorial tinkering. They’re set. NFIB’s strategy with state agencies is a simple one: get a seat at the table. We’re glad we could arrange a seat at the table for our members and other small and ethnic business groups with CARB and will report in future Main Street Minutes on the outcome.

Disregard My Previous Signature

As the media and last week’s Main Street Minute reported, Gov. Gavin Newsom put his signature on a new state budget for the Fiscal Year 2025-2026 on Friday, June 27, even issuing a news release for the occasion.

But wait! Just hold on.

His John Hancock was apparently written with quickly evaporating invisible ink, because it came to light that the real state budget, the one containing Assembly Bill 130 and Senate Bill 131 reforming the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), must have had to pass the Legislature and have been signed by the governor on Monday, June 30 – one day before deadline — or the entire previously signed state budget would be null and void.

After much grumbling, the Legislature and governor managed to pull the rabbit out of the hat, giving the governor the opportunity to send a another news release saying he signed a new state budget—this time for real.

“This was too urgent, too important, to allow the process to unfold as it has for the last generation,” Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas Bee told The Sacramento Bee. So, just sit down and shut up those of you who make a fetish out of open meetings, transparency, adhering to deadlines, and the fresh air of public input.

Fans of our Legislature’s use of trailer bills, gut-and-amend tactics, and the shadowy world of suspense files have a new one to admire: Will the real state budget please stand up, to borrow a line from the 50s game show To Tell the Truth.

NFIB California is not too upset, however.

Although we always prefer the legislative process to be conducted above board, SB 131 makes badly needed and long-overdue reforms to CEQA. NFIB made passage of Assembly Bill 609 (Wicks), which exempts most urban housing projects from environmental reviews from CEQA requirements, and Senate Bill 607 (Wiener), which speeds up reviews for a range of projects, including infill housing, a high priority. Elements of both were folded into the new state budget.

NFIB members in the construction industry account for the third highest percentage of all members, according to our latest Tax Survey (Page 10). Click here for a one-page, bulleted informational update on recent CEQA reforms.

What others are saying

“Mobility is what made this country prosperous and pluralistic, diverse and dynamic. Now progressives are destroying the very force that produced the values they claim to cherish … The opposition to mobility appears concentrated in progressive jurisdictions; one study of California found that when the share of liberal votes in a city increased by 10 points, the housing permits it issued declined by 30 percent.” – How Progressives Froze the American Dream, by Yoni Appelbaum. The Atlantic, March 2025.

The Legislature

With a the state budget behind them, legislators turned their attention back on policy bills and are facing a July 18 deadline for policy committees in the Assembly and Senate to hear and report bills.

From the 2,771 bills in this year’s session, NFIB has narrowed to 50 the best and worst for small business and of that 50, half are now effectively dead. NFIB will keep its members updated on the remaining 25. Please check the calendar section below. Your lobbying help might be needed. As we’ve seen with the Small Business Deduction victory, your voice packs a wallop.

Calendar

— July 10: NFIB and other small and ethnic business groups to meet with top officials from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) about environmental regulations

— July 18: Last day for policy committees to hear and report bills

— July 18: Summer recess begins upon adjournment

— July 24: 1 p.m. meeting with Assemblymember Juan Alanis for Stanislaus and Merced county-area NFIB members. Location to come.

— 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 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

Big Victory for Small Business

NFIB has won its long fight to make the 20% Small Business Deduction a permanent feature of the U.S. tax code, when President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 4.

“President Trump and Congress have the gratitude of 33 million American small business owners, who are all breathing a huge sigh of relief,” said NFIB President Brad Close in a news release sent right after the signing. “This bill provides them the certainty and level playing field needed to grow, hire new workers, provide for their employees, and give back to their communities. I’m proud of the way small business owners across the country engaged in this debate and helped deliver this historic victory. With the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, President Trump and lawmakers have strengthened the foundation of our economy and provided a boost not just for small businesses, but a boost for the entire country.”

NFIB California State Director John Kabateck echoed Close’s sentiment. “Right now, I’d like to give every NFIB member in California One Big Beautiful Hug for their help settling this issue once and for all, whether they picked up a phone and called their House member or U.S. Senator, wrote a letter, answered one of our many email appeals to speak out, or go the extra mile as our Leadership Council member Beth Booth did a while back when she took time away from running her business and raising her family to fly to Washington, D.C., to tell Congress nice and succinctly what was at stake. A five-star salute to them and every NFIB member in the nation.”

Next Main Street Minute: July 14. All Main Streets Minutes can be found on the NFIB website here. Pull down the California tab in the upper-right-hand corner.