Welcome to the March 24-28 edition of the NFIB California Main Street Minute from your small-business advocacy team in Sacramento.

Wednesday Webinar: New Small Business Laws!

This Wednesday, March 26, at 10 a.m., Ben Ebbink, one of California’s leading labor and employment law attorneys, will be NFIB California’s special guest at a webinar for members about which laws for 2025 are the most important ones for small business, and which compliance issues that have carried over from prior years still remain.

Ebbink is a partner in the Sacramento office of Fisher & Phillips LLP and legislative advocate and principal of FP Advocacy LLC.  He brings more than two decades of experience in labor and employment law to the firms he counsels, including 15 years as chief consultant to the California Assembly Committee on Labor and Employment.

This will be Ebbink’s fifth webinar for NFIB. If you haven’t already, click here to register. This event was rescheduled from the earlier Thursday, March 20, date.

The Legislature

Well, that was fast. Last Monday (March 17), NFIB published its 2025 Good, Bad, and Ugly Bills list and just two days later the Senate Environmental Quality Committee voted to kill one of the good ones.

Sen. Brian Jones, author of Senate Bill 2, which, according to a news release issued by him that spared no sensitivities, “aimed to halt upcoming Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) regulation changes passed by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which are expected to increase gas prices 65 cents per gallon.”

NFIB was the only association to testify in support of it. We want to thank NFIB members Augie Venezia of Fairfax Lumber and Hardware in Fairfax (Marin County) and Dan Bokum of Mike’s Tree Service in Napa, for coming to testify in support of SB 2.

Balanced budget? Fuhgeddaboudit.

Another good bill on NFIB’s GB&U list, the Balanced Budget Accountability Act of 2025, hasn’t made so much as a peep of noise since its introduction on December 2. Are you beginning to get a sense of what this Legislature’s priorities are and aren’t?

Public Shaming?

This Wednesday, March 23, the Senate Labor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee will hear Senate Bill 261 on wage theft and other labor laws. SB 261, according to the bill’s text, “… would require the [Labor] commissioner to post a copy of the order, decision, or award [against an employer] on the division’s internet website, as specified, no later than 15 days after the time to appeal from the order, decision, or award has expired and no appeal therefrom is pending.”

Calendar

— March 31: Cesar Chavez Day. Legislature not in session.

— April 10-21: Spring Break. Legislature not in session.

— May: Big month of bill deadlines for fiscal and policy committees. Check legislative calendar here.

— May: NFIB California Virtual Small Business Day. Day to be set. Check your email for further information and to register.

— May: State budget revise issued by governor’s office.

— May 26: Memorial Day. Legislature not in session.

— June 6: Last Day for Senate and Assembly to pass bills introduced in their chambers.

— June 15: Budget bill must be passed by midnight.

— July 4: Independence Day. Legislature not in session.

— July 18-August 17 Summer recess.

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

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

Who’s Hiring, Who’s Not in Southern California

The Orange County Register’s Jonathan Lasner, he of the “trusty spreadsheet,” looked at recent hiring data for Orange and Los Angeles counties and for the Inland Empire and found seven fields, such as construction and health care, adding jobs, while eight fields, such as restaurants, manufacturing and retail, shedding them.

National

— The Big News. NFIB Statement on FinCEN Removing Beneficial Ownership Requirements for America’s Small Businesses. WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 22, 2025) – The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation’s leading small business advocacy organization, released the following statement on the removal of the requirement for U.S. small businesses to report Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) to FinCEN under the Corporate Transparency Act.

“NFIB has been steadfast since the beginning that this onerous requirement is a massive intrusion into small businesses’ privacy and creates an unprecedented new government database on Americans. We agree with President Trump that requirements from the Corporate Transparency Act are ‘outrageous and invasive,’” said NFIB President Brad Close. “NFIB will continue to work with Congress to put the Administration’s actions into law and repeal the CTA fully. Furthermore, Congress should direct FinCEN to immediately destroy all of the data that was already submitted by small businesses out of fear they would face fines and prison time.”

— NFIB California State Director John Kabateck joined his Florida counterpart, Bill Herrle, and NFIB member Aileen Band on the latest episode of the Small Business Rundown podcast to talk about the ways NFIB connects with small business owners during natural disasters. Band discusses how her Daytona Beach Shores, Florida, business recovered after being hit by two hurricanes in 2022.

— Last Wednesday, March 19, NFIB joined an amicus brief in the case Amazon.com Services, LLC v. National Labor Relations Board at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The case concerns the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) recent decision that employers who exercise their free speech rights regarding unionization at mandatory workplace meetings are in violation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). News release here.

Next Main Street Minute, March 31. All Main Streets Minutes can be found on the NFIB website here. Pull down the California tab in the upper-right-hand corner.