NFIB California was invited to give its thoughts on the affordability difficulties facing everyone at a March 25 news conference with legislative leaders, calling attention to a package of bills they’ve introduced taking aim at the crisis.

Tim Taylor, NFIB California’s policy director, spoke for small businesses. “Affordability shows up every single day in the cost of doing business. It shows up in the highest minimum wage in the country, despite voters rejecting an increase via Proposition 32, while policymakers continue to raise minimum wages through wage boards and local mandates.

“It shows up in the highest gas taxes in the nation, with the threat of a crippling vehicle mileage tax on the horizon. And the lack of affordability shows up in a state carrying roughly $22 billion in unemployment insurance debt. California is the only state among the 22 that borrowed from the federal government that has not paid off its loan, and employers continue to shoulder that burden through higher federal payroll taxes.

“It shows up in rising commercial rents, workers’ compensation costs, energy prices, and a regulatory environment approaching half a million rules and regulations.

“The regulatory Leviathan is real and unrelenting.”

Added Assemblyman David Tangipa, in this report by The Center Square, “California is unaffordable and too expensive because of California policies. If you ask me, the fourth largest economy in the world, the richest state in the richest country in the history of the world, should not have these problems.”

Noted The Center Square story, “Lawmakers also said during Wednesday’s press conference that California’s farming industry, one of the state’s biggest industries, is facing profit margins that are less now than they were during the Great Depression.”