From the 5,343 bills introduced in the 2023-2024 session of the California State Legislature, NFIB narrowed to nearly 100 the best and worst for small business and then lobbied for passage or defeat of them. The list of 13 Good, Bad, and Ugly measures below (still alive in 2024) is to give a sample of the type of legislation helpful or harmful to Main Street firms.

Good

• AB 1894 (Ta) — would allow a person not less than 30 days to rectify a violation before being subject to civil penalties. Background information here.

• AB 1928 (Sanchez) — would suspend and nullify the California Supreme Court’s Dynamex decision, the assault on independent contracting.

• ACA 19 (Gallagher) — With businesses on the hook for paying down California’s $20 billion debt with the federal government for loans it took out to shore up its unemployment insurance trust fund, This bill would … require, in any fiscal year the unemployment insurance debt is not paid, the Legislature to include an appropriation for that debt repayment and ensure that the appropriation for that debt receives the greatest percentage of appropriated moneys compared to any other obligation or purpose funded by the Legislature.
• AB 2943 (Zbur/Rivas) — Existing law authorizes a person to be charged with grand theft if the property taken exceeds $950 over the course of distinct but related acts. This bill would clarify that those related acts include acts committed against multiple victims or in counties other than the county of the current offense.

Bad

• ACA 3 (Lee) — This measure would authorize the Legislature to impose a tax upon all forms of personal property or wealth, whether tangible or intangible.
• AB 2754 (Rendon) — As drafted, AB 2754 implicates nearly every customer and transportation service provider in the supply chain as jointly liable for payment of wages, worker’s compensation and reimbursement of business expenses where a worker receives, picks up, or delivers freight at the shipper or consignee’s premises, facility or worksite. More information in this letter of opposition.
• SB 399 (Wahab) — would prohibit an employer from requiring an employee to attend an employer-sponsored meeting or participate in any communications with the employer or its agents or representatives. AB 2751 (Haney) would give employees the right to disconnect from communications from the employer during nonworking hours. More information can be read in this letter of opposition to SB 399 and this letter of opposition to AB 2751.
• SCA 7 (Umberg) — This measure, the Right to Organize and Negotiate Act, would ensure that all Californians have the right to join a union and to negotiate with their employers, through their legally chosen representative, and the right to protect their economic well-being and safety at work. NFIB and its coalition’s letter of opposition can be read here. In Senate.

Ugly

• AB 2200 (Kalra) — In spite of 94% of Californians already having some form of health care, according to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, AB 2200 would eliminate private health insurance and create a single-payer, universal health-care system completely under the control of the state of California and estimated to cost $500 billion annually. For comparison, the entire state budget is around $300 billion and that is running a t$73 billion deficit. More information can be read in a letter of opposition.
• SB 1116 (Portantino) — would award unemployment benefits to striking workers who already have jobs; SB 227 (Durazo) would award unemployment benefits to undocumented workers; and SB 1434 (Durazo) would increase unemployment taxes on employers in part to fund a new benefits program for federally ineligible “excluded” workers. A letter of opposition to SB 1116 can be read here and one to SB 1434 here.

Click here for a pdf of this list. For information on other bills NFIB California is fighting for or against, email Grassroots Manager Taylor Criddle at taylor.criddle@nfib.org.