Last week, the National Federation of Independent Business/California, the voice of small business in California, unveiled our annual voting record for each Senator and Assemblymember in the State Capitol. Each year, NFIB/CA identifies and lobbies on bills which would have the most significant impact, either positive or negative, on small businesses. Based on their vote on these critical pieces of legislation, each member of the Legislature receives a percentage indicating how often he or she voted to support small business.

Every legislator claims to be a friend of small business, but our voting record puts them to the test. We are pleased to see 13 Senators and 25 Assemblymembers voting for small business at least 70 percent of the time, but these numbers still only represent a minority of each chamber’s membership. It is especially alarming to see some members of the legislature only earning 8 or 15 percent with NFIB, while having some of the highest unemployment rates in California in their districts. We urge those legislators with below average voting records to listen more closely to small business owners in their districts and commit to supporting these vital job creators with better votes in 2018.

As for our 100% club and NFIB friends of small business, we applaud your efforts in the State Capitol to support small businesses. Together, we understand the only way to rebuild our economy and strengthen our communities starts with supporting small businesses and protecting them from additional taxes, mandates, and complex regulation.

NFIB assessed California legislators on 14 bills vital to the health of small business in California during the 2017 half of the 2017-18 legislative session. The NFIB Good, Bad, & Ugly bill list provides a sense of our top priorities throughout the year and can always be found here. 22 legislators had impressive 100% scores; however 62 legislators failed small business this year with scores as low as 8%. The complete NFIB Voting Record with the bill numbers, description, and votes can be found here, or by here NFIB.

John Kabateck is the State Director for NFIB California, which represents 22,000 dues-paying small business members across the state.