With the annual legislative house of origin and budget deadlines now past, the National Federation of Independent Business, NFIB, California released an updated list of remaining ‘Good, Bad, and Ugly’ bills which will have major consequences for small business.
“It is now halftime in the Legislature, and with that comes some welcome victories for small business, but more importantly there remain significant challenges ahead in these final months of this legislative session,” commented Tom Scott, NFIB/CA State Executive Director. “With this being the first year in the 2017-18 two-year session, it is important to remember nothing is ever truly dead, but we have identified key victories and challenges so far for small business at legislative halftime,” Scott added.
Some of these small business victories include:
AB 657 (Cunningham): Requires state agencies that significantly impact small businesses to display the name and contact information of the small business liaison on the agency’s Web site, and to fill any vacancy in this position within three months. Passed out of Assembly, in Senate Appropriations.
AB 816 (Kiley): Requires public California Environmental Protection Agency meetings, including subordinate departments like CARB and OEHHA, to be broadcast online and interactive to the public. It also requires them to be recorded for future access. Passed out of the Assembly, in Senate Rules.
Some small business challenges ahead include:
AB 1008 (McCarty): Prohibits employers from asking applicants about convictions until they make a conditional offer of employment. It creates new obligations and liabilities for employers and allows for new lawsuits. It will hamstring a small business owner’s ability to quickly fill a position. Passed out of the Assembly, in Senate Rules.
SB 562 (Lara): Creates fiscally reckless single-payer healthcare system in California. This would cost $400-500 billion annually, and would require enormous tax increases to fund. It would hurt the quality of healthcare for citizens. Passed out of the Senate, in Assembly Rules.
NFIB officials said the full ‘Good, Bad, and Ugly’ bill list includes 54 bills total (13 active): 24 good (two active); 12 bad (four active); and 18 ugly (seven active). This list reflects proposals from the 2017-2018 legislative session, and as new bills are introduced or morphed into substantively new bills, this list will be updated. The current version is available at http://www.nfib.com/ca/gbu.
For more than 70 years, the National Federation of Independent Business has been the ‘Voice of Small Business,’ taking the message from Main Street to the halls of Congress and all 50 state legislatures. NFIB has 350,000 dues-paying members nationally, with over 22,000 in California. NFIB annually surveys its members on state and federal issues vital to their survival as America's economic engine and biggest creator of jobs. To learn more visit www.NFIB.com/california.
