Welcome to the November 3-7 edition of the Main Street Minute from your small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento.

NFIB Joins Two More Health-Care Groups

The cost of health care has been NFIB members’ No. 1 issue nationally for 39 consecutive years. In addition to our lobbying efforts in Congress and in the California State Legislature, we will also join some groups that share the same goal of reducing costs and premiums to help amplify our common message.

NFIB California recently joined two groups also working to reduce health-care costs. One is Employers Against Hospital Pricing Abuse and the other is the Alliance for Affordable Vision Care.

As reported in the September 15-19 Main Street Minute, NFIB was also a coalition partner with the California Businesses for Affordable Health Care, which organized to call for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s veto of nine bills sent to him by the Legislature that will increase health-care premiums by $335 million.

“The relationship between small businesses and health insurance has been a longstanding challenge for small business owners whether they offer or don’t offer the benefit to their employees, and for owners’ own personal health insurance coverage,” according to NFIB’s Small Business Health Insurance Survey. “Eighty-nine percent of firms with 30 or more employees currently offer health insurance compared to 39% of those with 1-9 employees.

“The most important reason small employers don’t offer health insurance is that it’s too expensive, with 65% reporting this reason.”

Check out our new partners’ websites, Employers Against Hospital Pricing Abuse and the Alliance for Affordable Vision Care, for some additional valuable information in our unified cause to reduce health-care costs.

Elections Ahoy

With all legislative activity for 2025 done, and the governor’s deadline to act on bills in the rear-view mirror, this edition of the Main Street Minute will turn its attention to election matters.

Yes. There is a Special Election tomorrow on Proposition 50. But today (November 3) is also the one-year mark to the General Election of 2026, also on a November 3. In between times is a Primary Election on June 2.

Any NFIB member considering a run for state or federal office should be aware of the December 19 to February 4 time period to submit signatures in lieu of a filing fee. You should also consider The Power of the Small Business Voice.

Ballot Propositions

As a reminder, NFIB California does not make political endorsements, its political action committee does, and the NFIB CA PAC has not yet met to consider which candidates and ballot measures it wants to support or oppose. And even then, it will not take a stand on every issue on the ballot for this reason.

Reports Tom Ross, president and CEO of Swing Strategies, “Statewide ballot measures tend to come in waves. Four months ago, there were only five citizen-sponsored initiatives attempting to make the 2026 ballot — today there are 25.

“Since September 1, nine initiatives have been filed. Historically, only about 19% of initiatives ultimately qualify for the ballot, but this latest wave includes several strong contenders. Two to watch are the CalChamber’s CEQA reform initiative — which aims to streamline housing, water, and energy projects — and SEIU-UHW’s ‘Billionaires Tax,’ a proposed 5% wealth tax that would be the first of its kind in the nation.”

Click here to read Ross’s full email.

Is a billionaires tax a small business issue?

Mega-unions SEIU and United Healthcare Workers West are supporting a ballot initiative to lay on a one-time tax of 5% on California’s 200 billionaires, which will supposedly generate $100 billion in revenue for the state.

According to the 2024 NFIB Tax Survey of its membership, “Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of small business owners reported an annual net income of less than $500,000 in 2023, with 18 percent reporting less than $50,000. Nine percent reported an annual net income of $500,000–$999,999, and 8 percent $1 million–$2.49 million. Four percent reported over $2.5 million, and another 4 percent did not know.”

So, it would appear small businesses are safe from the clutches of this ballot initiative, should it pass. Not so, argues Susan Shelley, vice president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, in this CalMatters story.

“’We tax income at a very high level, but we don’t tax wealth and assets,’ Shelley said. ‘Nearly half of the state’s personal income tax revenue comes from just 1% of the state’s earners. Over time,’ she added, ‘a wealth tax could come all the way down to the middle class and they say you have too much equity in your house and we’re taking it.’”

Right now, however, there are some ballot measures, it’s safe to say, that will pique the PAC’s interest. Among them are three that have already qualified for the November 2026 ballot. They are:

ACA 13 (Ward) Voting thresholds. (Res. Ch. 176, 2023) (PDF)

SCA 1 (Newman) Elections: recall of state officers. (Res. Ch. 204, 2024) (PDF)

SB 42 (Umberg) Political Reform Act of 1974: public campaign financing: California Fair Elections Act of 2026. (Ch. 245, 2025) (PDF)

What Others are Saying

From Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen’s guest editorial in The Orange County Register, Demise of refineries is not something to celebrate.

“An Oct. 15 report by the California Energy Commission shows we pay $1.94 in taxes and 76 cents in refining costs for every gallon of gas.

“The 105-year-old Phillips refinery will stop producing its yearly 1.3 billion gallons of gasoline in December. This makes two refineries closing within the next six months, leaving us a grand total of 7 still producing gasoline. California had 43 refineries in 1982.”

From Morningstar, October 23, Valero Still Plans to Shut Refinery After Talks with California Officials.

“Valero Energy is proceeding with its plan to close its 145,000 b/d Benicia refinery in Northern California by next spring following talks with state officials about options to keep it running, the company’s general counsel said on Thursday.

“’We have been in discussions with California, but nothing has materialized out of that. And so as a result nothing has changed,’ Rich Walsh told analysts during a call to discuss the company’s third-quarter financial results.”

NFIB Ranking

In NFIB’s 2024 Small Business Problems & Priorities report, the latest edition, the ‘Cost of Natural Gas, Propane, Gasoline, Diesel Fuel Oil’ had risen to the sixth biggest worry of Main Street entrepreneurs among the 75 they were asked to rank. Its 2020 ranking was 19th.

From San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan in The San Francisco Standard, Mayors like me can’t fix what the state is breaking. We need to demand better.

“We have the highest poverty rate in the nation, and the highest unemployment rate. Our energy costs are now the highest in the continental United States. Nearly a quarter of America’s unsheltered homeless live in California. And all the while, Californians bear the second highest state and local tax burden in the nation and must reckon with hundreds of billions’ worth of unfunded pension liabilities and deferred maintenance on public infrastructure in the years ahead.”

Calendar

— November 4: Statewide Special Election Day on Proposition 50. Click here for more information from the secretary of state.

— January 5, 2026: Legislature reconvenes

National

— NFIB Webinar: What Employers Need to Know About No Tax on Tips and No Tax on Overtime, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 12 noon ET. Click here to make a reservation.

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

— The federal government remains shut down for an undetermined period of time, as Congress negotiates a funding agreement. NFIB has no position on this issue.

— NFIB President Brad Close joined SiriusXM’s The David Webb Show to give the latest update on BOI reporting requirements: “President Trump and the Administration have done a wonderful job on this issue trying to help small businesses, but we’re at the point now where Congress has to act and that’s the key point. We are asking Congress to not only repeal this law, but also to mandate that all the data that some small business owners – millions of them – have already put into the system because they were required to [be destroyed] so this personal information is gone.”

Vice President of Federal Government Relations Jeff Brabant joined The Lars Larson Show to discuss this topic: “The fact that you’re putting this many American small businesses at risk is terrifying for a lot of small businesses… I know this is a really scary thing, but one thing I do want to point out is that earlier this spring, President Trump exempted American small businesses.”

Blaze Media quoted Director of Federal Government Relations Josh McLeod: “President Trump was right to call BOI egregious, invasive, and an economic menace.”

Next Main Street Minute: November 10. All Main Streets Minutes can be found on the NFIB website here. Pull down the California tab in the upper-right-hand corner.