Main Street Menace of the Week: Senate Bill 935 (Leno)
While the legislature is in session, the National Federation of Independent Business/California will be profiling anti-small business bills and initiatives and the adverse effect they would have on California’s job creators. This is the first column of the 2014 series. Have you ever seen the movie “Groundhog Day”? It stars Bill Murray as a not-so-nice […]
NFIB/CA Ballot Results Show Little Appetite for More Taxes
Each year, NFIB/CA sends out ballots to our nearly 24,000 members across the state to determine their positions on the issues we see coming down the line in Sacramento. Over the years, our members’ responses to these questions have directed us in taking policy positions on the issues that affect them: minimum wage, Prop 65 […]
Small Business Wish List for 2014
Will Small Business ‘Deck the Halls’ this holiday season, or have a ‘Blue Christmas’? To say that 2013 was challenging for small business is really an understatement. Coming off of 2012 saddled with additional taxes with the passage of Prop. 30 and more regulations with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, many small business […]
NFIB Legal Center’s Winning Streak Continues with Three Victories in Two Days!
This has been a historic year for the NFIB Legal Center. In April SCOTUS Blog listed NFIB Legal Center as one of the top-ten most influential organizations in the Supreme Court—in terms of bringing the Court’s attention to important issues. In May we closed out a remarkably successful Supreme Court term helping to secure victories […]
Shop Small This Saturday!
The deficit in Sacramento and Washington is growing—and I’m not speaking about floundering finances. The trust-deficit between Americans and policymakers is distressingly large—with only 19 percent of Americans, according to an October Pew poll, who say that they have faith that the government will do what is right just about always or most of the […]
NFIB Files Amicus Brief in Private Property Case
The protection of private property from government interference is an ideal this country was built on. This principal is so engrained in American society that the Fifth Amendment includes the ‘Takings Clause,’ stating that government shall not take private property without just compensation. Unfortunately, the courts have by in large disregarded this key tenet of the […]
Bill Signings End Tax Board Money Grab from Small Business
Small businesses got a bit of hope this past week as Governor Brown signed two bills, Senate Bill 209 (Lieu) and Assembly Bill 1412 (Bocanegra) to ensure that interest and penalties will not be assessed retroactively against taxpayers who complied in good faith with existing tax law when that law was later declared unconstitutional by […]
Lawsuit Abuse Awareness Week Reminds Us All That We Need Legal Reform
As I travel around California visiting with our many small business members, these mom and pop employers have told me almost every story of lawsuit abuse imaginable: customers pretending to slip and fall in order to sue a business, lawsuits over the blue paint on a parking space being faded, businesses facing Prop. 65 lawsuits […]
Governor Should Veto Minimum Wage Increase
Late yesterday, the Governor and legislative leaders announced that a $2.00 increase to the minimum wage in California is in order and needs to happen. Really? A 25% minimum wage hike when nearly two million Californians are out of work – and small businesses in every community are dying on the vine? When huge uncertainties […]
Senate Bill 161 Hurts Small Employers
With each passing day, the federal healthcare law (known to many as “ObamaCare”) seems to be evolving as one of the most polarizing issues of our generation. Whether you love it or hate it, or find yourself somewhere in between, all sides can agree on one thing: every American deserves access to affordable healthcare. As […]