FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: John Kabateck, California State Director, john@kabstrat.com or Tony Malandra, Senior Media Manager, anthony.malandra@nfib.org

SACRAMENTO, Calif., June 27, 2024 – Yesterday’s vote in the Assembly Committee on Insurance to stop Senate Bill 1116 from advancing any further came less than a year after Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed an identical measure granting striking workers unemployment benefits.

“Small business hasn’t had much to cheer about from this session of the Legislature, but the defeat of SB 1116 is a small ray of sunlight poking, however temporarily, through the dark clouds progressive politics have draped over the Capitol,” said John Kabateck, California state director for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).

In a coalition letter of opposition NFIB joined with more than 100 other business groups, it pointed out that the measure by Sen. Anthony Portantino “would effectively require employers to subsidize striking workers, even if that employer is not presently (or has never) experienced any strikes. By forcing employers to pay unemployment insurance (UI) payments to striking workers, SB 1116 would also raise unemployment insurance taxes on employers across California, overturn more than 70 years of precedent, and put California’s UI program at risk of violating federal law. This bill is a repeat of last year’s SB 799, which was vetoed by the Governor because of the debt it would add to California’s UI Fund-which is an even more pressing concern given the state’s long-term estimated budget concerns.”

Added Kabateck, “In the end, some lawmakers realized it’s extremely bad policy to give unemployment benefits to people who were never intended to be recipients of them from a fund that is essentially bankrupt and unable to pay the federal government back for the loans it borrowed to keep the state’s UI system solvent.”

Keep up with the latest on California small-business news at www.nfib.com/california or by following NFIB on Twitter @NFIB_CA or on Facebook @NFIB.CA.

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For 80 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven association. Since its founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com. 

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