NFIB California

NFIB California podcast with Tara Lynn Gray. The new director for the California Office of Small Business Advocate discusses the resources available to small-business owners and takes a post-pandemic look ahead.

Slip in small-business optimism draws California response. Commenting locally, John Kabateck, NFIB California’s state director said, This is not the type of news we would have preferred hearing heading into the vacation months in our state’s tourist-heavy economy. I think some warning lights, if not alarm bells, should be raised especially for our State Legislature. Let’s hit the pause button on the many proposals to increase regulations long enough to let the economy sort itself outNot that I’m expecting them to do so, but California is the land of dreams. https://www.nfib.com//slip-in-small-business-optimism-dra/

The search for qualified employees is a constant for small-business owners in good times and in bad patches, but the pandemic has made finding any employees an even bigger problem. One step California could take, but the political maneuverability to do so is impossibly narrow, would be to join with 25 other states that are ending the extra $300 a week the feds have added on top of state unemployment benefits that for too many people, has created an incentive not to get back on the job, and we’re not the only association to find this. Alignable took a poll that found 30% of small-business owners citing the extra $300 as the reason for the hiring shortage. The federal $300 ends in September, California would help itself by ending it sooner.

It would be tough to find any equal Assembly Member James Ramos has in the California Legislature when it comes to knowing the issues small-business owners face and cope with every day. In a podcast talk with NFIB California’s chief legislative advocate Kevin Pedrotti, Assembly Member Ramos talks about his small-business past and why he authored Assembly Bill 247, which would give small businesses some liability protection against unfair COVID-19 lawsuits, and Assembly Bill 632, which would lower the state’s Minimum Franchise Tax. https://bit.ly/3oUf4Ap

She packed more valuable information into 15 minutes than anyone I’ve ever heard, said NFIB California State Director John Kabateck, who hosted the podcast. Indeed, she touched on a variety of topics, such as the re-opening of the state, vaccinations, the state’s Small Business Relief Grant program, the California Competes Tax Credit program, rehiring incentives, and license and fee reductions. https://www.nfib.com//governors-top-business-aide-on-nfib/

With federal money through Paycheck Protection Program loans having run its course, the governor’s announcement today that California would step in to fill the void for small businesses still in need of financial help is welcome news for mom-and-pop enterprises that have been hanging on for dear life this past year. Two things the Legislature could do to complement the governor’s call to ‘step up our game’ would be to pass liability protection for small businesses against unfair COVID-19 lawsuits aimed at them and to declare a moratorium on all proposals to increase taxes and regulations."

Thank you, California State Treasurer Fiona Ma for being a guest on the latest KabaTalks podcast with brother Brian and John. It was an informative and lively discussion.

These numbers don’t surprise me. I hear the lament of not being able to fill job openings quite often when talking to our California members. Finding qualified employees has always been a concern of small-business owners, now it seems that has taken a back seat to finding any employees."

This law gives small-business owners more clarity, certainty, and security as Main Street begins to thaw from the COVID-19 freeze this past year, said John Kabateck, California state director for the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the state’s largest small-business association. We thank Governor Newsom for his support and approval of it. The law is especially timely as small employers are now huddling with their CPAs assessing their taxes."

Thank you, Dee Dee Myers, Assembly Member James Ramos, and Senate Republican Leader Scott Wilk for making NFIB's 2021 Small Business Day a huge success. I don’t think I’ve ever heard more information packed into a 1-hour-and-15-minute time frame, said NFIB California State Director John Kabateck. Our Small Business Day serves as one of the best examples of how valuable these events and the role of NFIB can be. https://www.nfib.com//2021-nfib-ca-small-business-day-a-h/

So much of the policy driving optimism or pessimism emanates from Washington, D.C., but states have a huge impact, too. States across the nation are finding the whole art to reviving their small-business economy is not larding more taxes and regulations on the backs of their Main Street entrepreneurs, and some states taking a further step by giving small-business owners some liability protection against unfair, needlessly costly, and solvency threatening COVID-19 lawsuits. https://www.nfib.com//local-comment-on-todays-survey-resu/

Small-business owners need predictability and dependability from their governments to make a range of decisions from hiring to purchasing to expanding their enterprises. This reopening certainty will help those Main Street businesses affected the most an opportunity to recover and move forward. The governor’s establishment of a complete reopening date now gives them something solid to make plans with.

Thank you, Jot Condie, President and CEO of the California Restaurant Association, for making Episode 1, Season 1 of the KABATALKS podcast a lively and informative discussion about the future of the restaurant industry in our state.

Our poll results underscore what our members and other small-business owners have been saying clearly, repeatedly, and emphatically. They want to stay open or re-open; they don’t want to be hit by an unfair and unprovable COVID lawsuit; they don’t want to be saddled with a tax increase on their unemployment insurance, especially since the state was awash in funds prior to the largesse it will now receive from the American Rescue Plan Act; and they want the state to align its tax code with the federal government’s on PPP loan forgiveness, because nothing not a grant, not a loan speeds money faster to them than being able to keep what they’ve already set aside.