In the wee hours of Friday morning, as our elected leaders were dealing with the state’s massive budget deficit, they took time to pass a resolution supporting the only automotive manufacturing plant west of the Mississippi River. The NUMMI plant in Fremont, California represents nearly 5,000 Bay Area jobs and more than 20,000 jobs around the state. This display of bipartisanship and support for California jobs is just what California needs from those elected to lead out state.
However, while the Legislature will join in harmonious action for this one significant business, they generally fail to show the same level of support for the businesses that employ more than half of California’s workforce and create nearly 75 percent of new jobs. Oh, and small businesses generate more than 15 times the numbers of patents per employee as compared with larger businesses, so we know where the future of biotech, greeentech, nanotech, and any other technology can be found. Where is the desperate support for the hundreds of thousands of small employers and millions of solo entrepreneurs who struggle under near Depression-level economic conditions, a credit market unwilling to lend, and government-imposed regulatory costs and taxes?
Time and again, California small businesses have asked for relief in any number of ways, but those requests have been met with deafening silence or outright hostility. If the Legislature brought the same attitude of doing whatever it takes to save one major company to saving the businesses most responsible for California’s economic health, then our state would soon find itself in a much better place with more Californians working and state revenues on the rise.
Saving NUMMI is a worthy action that could protect about 30,000 jobs statewide and our leaders should be congratulated for demonstrating support for a major California employer, but preventing the loss of thousands of jobs barely keeps our state treading water with more than 2.2 million unemployed Californians. Maybe this is the start of a new way of thinking in Sacramento. Maybe this is just a flash-in-the-pan moment where the threat of the loss of one company would devastate a community. NFIB, of course, hopes for the former.
Many small business-killing mandates have been stopped this year due to fiscal concerns, but holding off the bad is no longer enough (unless you prefer the status quo of millions of unemployed Californians and a cash-strapped state). California small businesses are ready to create new jobs and restore California’s economy. We simply ask that the political will and leadership of our legislators for small business match what they displayed last night.
Perhaps then we can do more than save 30,000 jobs. Perhaps we can create 30,000 jobs or, better yet, 300,000 jobs and get Californians back to work.
Save NUMMI. Save small business, Save California.