For the legislative and political week June 15-19
This NFIB California Main Street Minute from your small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento is included in the June 18 newsletter to the California membership. The next Main Street Minute will be posted June 22.
Hot Topics
- The Legislature met its constitutional deadline for passing a state budget this past Monday, June 15. The June 15 deadline is constitutional, but more importantly, missing this date would have meant legislators would not have been paid their salaries. The budget passed by the Legislature was agreed to by both houses but has yet to include the agreement of Gov. Gavin Newsom. Once an agreement with him is reached, the Legislature will pass a series of budget trailer bills to implement the budget. The governor has until July 1 to sign a 2020-21 budget. The Assembly is set to recess on June 19, although they may need to return the following week to vote on budget trailer bills. The Senate recesses on July 2. Both houses return July 13 until session adjourns on August 31. NFIB will reserve comment on the budget until the final product emerges.
- On Friday, June 12, NFIB California State Director John Kabateck testified against a proposed, November ballot initiative that would create the California Privacy Rights Act, a souped-up version of the California Consumer Privacy Act, sponsored by the same proponents. Highlights from Kabateck’s testimony before the Assembly Privacy & Consumer Protection Committee can be read here.
- Also last week, on June 10, Kabateck teamed up with Assemblyman Vince Fong to debate Assembly Bill 5 with the law’s author, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, and AB 5 supporter Steve Smith, a labor union official, at a panel discussion hosted by the Sacramento Press Club. The full story and a Facebook video of the one-hour panel discussion can be viewed here.
- On Tuesday, June 9, NFIB attended a meeting of the Governor’s Economic Recovery Task Force, of which it is a member. At the meeting, Kabateck exchanged information with Isabel Guzman, California’s Small Business Advocate. NFIB’s seat at the table allows it to advocate for meaningful relief for our members as California pivots toward reopening.
- Media-wise, Kabateck started out last week giving a four-minute interview to KOGO-AM 600 Newsradio in San Diego informing listeners that small businesses have been put on the hook for COVID-19 workers’ compensation claims that can’t be proved if the virus was contracted at their places of business.
- Kabateck closed out the week interviewed on the Phil Cowan Show, AM1380 in Sacramento, and late provided information and quotes for stories in The Sacramento Bee and San Francisco Chronicle and Politico California. Clips will be forthcoming in the NFIB in the News story on the NFIB California webpage, which is updated frequently.
Nationally
- On June 17, NFIB held another of its weekly Wednesday webinars, this one titled Overcoming Financial and Employee Challenges in the Covid-19 Era. This and all past webinars, as well as all coronavirus-related information as it affects small business, can be found by clicking the ‘Coronavirus’ tab on the main NFIB webpage, www.nfib.com.
- Started to help small-business owners navigate congressional and governmental agency actions on PPP and EIDL loans, NFIB’s webinars have become a hit with Main Street entrepreneurs across the nation. “The webinars and resources we are providing to our members have been an invaluable service to so many and continue to give small business owners guidance and information that no one else is providing,” said NFIB President and CEO Brad Close. “We had over 10,000 small business owners registered for our webinar last week – think about that for a moment. Over 10,000 business owners, all of whom are struggling to keep their businesses afloat and pay their employees, are taking precious time out of their day to tune in to NFIB and get information that is crucial to their business.”
- June 30 is the last day to apply for a Paycheck Protection Act loan, and there’s still $130 billion left to give out. According to the latest SBA numbers, there were 537,614 loans given to Californian’s for a total of $66,669,235,081.
California Main Street Minutes are published every Monday and put on the NFIB California webpage. Two additional updates are published the first and third Wednesday of each month for inclusion in the first and third Thursday newsletters.
Photo courtesy of the California State Senate website
