Recently, there’s been relatively good news on the economy. Home prices are increasing and the stock market continues to grow; signals that we may finally be starting to recover from the Great Recession. As a result, California’s robust private sector can continue to build and hopefully grow upon its long history of ensuring that employees […]

They won’t come with a neat little receipt for the cost of the much criticized high-speed rail project. They won’t even come with an honest explanation that a new tax is the reason. But make no mistake, increased prices are coming, if the California Air Resources Board succeeds in imposing a new billion dollar tax […]

In
the mad scramble to deal with the state’s budget deficit our Legislature would
have you believe that taxing internet sales is the equivalent of the goose that
laid the golden egg – that it will produce revenue for the state without a cost
to anyone in California.

And
if you believe that, perhaps we can get the tooth fairy to take care of the
rest of the budget.

AB
28X – now headed to the Governor’s desk – would place new tax burdens on
Internet sales and is a direct threat to small business and Internet
entrepreneurship. The California Small Business Alliance is a member of the
Coalition to Protect Small Business Jobs, calling upon Governor Brown to veto
the e-taxation bill approved by the California Legislature.

If AB
28X is signed, similar bills across the country will follow, and this would be
an accounting nightmare for small business owners. Unlike larger retail chains
with large accounting staffs and in-house legal counsel, small businesses
simply do not have the resources to contend with calculating, collecting and
remitting taxes to thousands upon thousands of tax jurisdictions across the
country. It would be a competitive disadvantage for small retailers and would
force many of them to close their doors.

A new poll by the AB 32 Implementation Group showed voter support for California Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) has dramatically declined. After hearing arguments for and against the measure, 56% of voters approved of AB 32 and 40% opposed.

The fact AB 32 won’t have any measurable impact on reducing global warming, its price tag of billions of dollars in higher energy costs and hidden tax increases, and its impact on jobs drove voter opposition to the measure.

Voters were particularly concerned about the conclusions from the California Small Business Roundtable’s study of the impact of AB 32 on small business in California. This study found that AB 32 would cost the average small business in California about $50,000 per year and would destroy more than one million California jobs.