The Pennsylvania Office of Small Business Advocate (OSBA) is collecting data from small businesses with 250 or fewer employees regarding their utility services, including water, wastewater gas, electric, and telecommunications.

Watch here: Pennsylvania Office of Small Business Advocate Survey Video

Take the survey here!

The office says, “The PA Office of Small Business Advocate understands the importance for small businesses to receive safe, reliable, equitable, and affordable utility services, as well as the value of hearing directly from the small business community about its interactions with utilities…This information will give us the insight necessary to continue advocating for you effectively. We encourage you to complete the survey and share it with others who may benefit from participating. Your feedback is essential with ensuring you receive the utility services you need to sustain and thrive.”

Welcome to the August 4-8 edition of the Main Street Minute from your small-business-advocacy team in Sacramento.

The Legislature

Lawmakers are on summer recess and will reconvene August 18.

In the meantime, NFIB is putting the finishing touches on its August 26 Leadership Day at the Capitol. Click here for a description of last year’s event.

A Glimpse at the Next Senate President

“[Sen. Scott] Wiener, in tandem with Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, has been the tip of the spear, pushing through a host of aggressive bills to turbocharge housing construction. Most notably, Wiener and Wicks championed a proposal this year to bypass environmental reviews for new housing in urban areas — the biggest reform to the landmark California Environmental Quality Act in a generation,” reports Politico California Playbook.

“Incoming Senate President Pro Tem Monique Limón, one of the chamber’s biggest environmental champions and a lukewarm supporter of housing legislation, is widely expected to remove Wiener as chair of the powerful budget committee (this year’s CEQA reforms advanced through budget bills).”

Done Your Workplace Violence Prevention Plan Yet?

It’s been more than a year now since the July 1, 2024, start date for all California businesses, with few exceptions, to have had their state-mandated workplace violence prevention plans written and available to anyone who requests to see them.

NFIB vigorously opposed Senate Bill 553, which created this onerous and needless obligation, but it did become law and must be complied with.

With the summer months here, now might be a good time to review your obligations if you have yet to comply with the law. And, don’t feel bad if you haven’t already. We suspect that’s the case with a majority of employers.

We suggest starting with the information NFIB put in this news release from last year. Next, we recommend reading attorney Hannah Sweiss’ post, FP’s Workplace Violence Prevention Awareness Kit for Employers, on the Fisher Phillip website. Sweiss also produced a webinar for NFIB, the link of which you can find in the news release mentioned above, and of which we thank her for again.

Excerpt: “Most employers in California must establish a written Workplace Violence Prevention Plan, train employees and supervisors on workplace violence matters, maintain a violence incident log, and keep records of all training and violent workplace incidents that occur. Click here to read more about the California law, which took effect last year and is in addition to Cal/OSHA’s existing healthcare workplace violence prevention rule.”

Finally, check out Cal/OSHA Workplace Violence Prevention for General Industry (Non-Health Care Settings) on the Department of Industrial Relations website.

Speaking of July 1 Start Dates

“For the first time, domestic workers employed by companies in California, such as housecleaners, caregivers and gardeners, will be covered by state workplace safety and health laws starting July 1, 2025. Until now, these laws did not cover individuals performing household domestic work, leaving a gap in coverage,” said the Department of Industrial Relations in this news release.

NFIB California in the News

One of the differences — and big values — between NFIB and other business groups are the issues we just will not let go of. Major industries and big businesses have regulatory compliance specialists on staff. Not so, small businesses. As a result, small businesses are ripe game for the scandalous practice of shakedown lawsuits, which have been going on across the country for longer than it should have been allowed to.

A Portland, Oregon, TV station recently described the racket. “As KGW previously reported, the Wampler firm, along with attorney B.J. Wade of Memphis, followed a playbook. They found people with disabilities and paid them $200 for every business they visited. Then, the out-of-town lawyers hired a local attorney who sent the business a letter threatening to sue and attached a boilerplate complaint. The demand letter offered an alternative: if the property owner paid thousands of dollars in attorney fees and brought its property into ADA compliance, the lawyer wouldn’t sue the business.”

California Sen. Roger Niello came up with a way to throw a serious wrench into the works. His Senate Bill 84 would allow small businesses a short period of time to correct ADA violations before being sued. A wonderfully simple idea that drew an impressive bipartisan coalition of supporters and passing the State Senate 34 to 2. When the Assembly refused to give SB 84 even one hearing, NFIB, more than any other group, banged the media drums loudly.

“In a turn that the California National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) called ‘infuriating,’ that hearing wasn’t scheduled,” reported The Business Journal of Fresno. “Tim Taylor, NFIB’s legislative director, did much of the heavy lifting getting SB 84 through the Senate. He didn’t like how it all went down. ‘If it dies in the light of day, that’s fine. That’s part of the process,’ Taylor said in an NFIB newsletter. ‘But for it to die in darkness, that’s a problem, and that’s what leaves a really bad taste in everyone’s mouth.’”

NFIB has vowed to put the heat on legislators to bring this up again next year and has promised to make it a big issue in next year’s campaigns.

We also draw your attention to these two publications from the NFIB Small Business Legal Center:

— Guide to Responding to ADA Lawsuits

— ADA Website Accessibility. How to Avoid Lawsuits

Speaking of Tim Taylor

His remarks about the sorry state of California’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund were reported by The Center Square for a story that ran in 50 other media up and down the state and across the country.

“We still haven’t seen any real accountability with respect to the fraudulent claims paid out by the [California Employment Development Department] and yet the state’s UI debt surges while struggling small businesses are forced to make the minimum payment on the state’s maxed-out credit card,” Tim Taylor, California policy director for the National Federation of Independent Business, told The Center Square. “Households can’t survive that way and neither can states.”

Not a Tempest in a Teapot

“It’s one thing to rant at Southwest Airlines on X or confront Chipotle over its allegedly stingy burrito bowls, but it’s a different beast when influencers attack mom-and-pop operations that lack in-house crisis-management teams. And it’s not as if content creators are bound by a code of professional ethics. To the contrary, their willingness to accept free meals in return for favorable coverage makes them walking conflicts of interest.”

So wrote The San Francisco Standard in a story it published last Wednesday (July 30), The food influencers must be stopped.

“In the influencer ecosystem, accountability seems unevenly distributed, at best. We reached out several times to the email address associated with @itskarlabb and did not hear back. Even after her story made national news and chalked up 21 million views on TikTok, her identity remains unknown. Although she took down an acclaimed chef and now boasts more than 400,000 followers — up from 20,000 last week — she has neither granted a single interview nor taken responsibility for the carnage and collateral damage her post unleashed.”

Added the website Eater in its story, A ‘Micro-Influencer’ Drama Caused a Brand New Wine Bar to Close Permanently, “Social media reactions poured in. Under the cafe’s public posts, comments ranged from supportive to skeptical. Some noted the irony of a ‘micro’ influencer causing this much fallout, while others questioned whether influencers should wield so much public influence. Several TikTokers joined the conversation, including Ed Choi (@etchaskej), whose reaction video criticizing the chef and calling for the public not to support Kis Cafe has now surpassed 3.2 million views.”

According to NFIB’s Small Business and Technology survey, 82% of small businesses have their own websites. If you have one or want to start one, NFIB offers some advice in an episode of its Small Business Rundown, Expert Tips: Social Media for Small Business Growth.

And if you get some nasty feedback on it, Forbes magazine has 12 Tips For Responding To Negative Feedback On Social Media.

Big Date Ahead

For whatever small-business-marketing potential it may have, on September 9, California will be 175 years old. On this day in 1850, it became the 31st state. More from the State Library here.

From One Who Should Know

“’Newsom is running for president, so let’s just do away with the fiction of ‘might be running for president,’ said Jim Ross, a consultant who ran Newsom’s first San Francisco mayoral campaign in 2003. ‘He needs to raise money — $40 million, $50 million, $100 million — to run for president, and to do that, he needs to get all these San Francisco-oriented, California-oriented AI folks to give him money.’” – The San Francisco Standard.

Calendar

— August 18: Legislature reconvenes from summer recess

— August 26: NFIB California’s Leadership Day at the Capitol

— August 29: Last day for fiscal committees to hear and report bills to the floor

— September 1: Labor Day. Legislature not in session

— September 12, 2025-January 5, 2026: Interim recess of the 2025-2026 session of the California State Legislature

— October 15: Last day for governor to sign or veto bills passed before September 12.

National

Highlights from Federal Government Relations Principal Louis Bertolotti’s weekly report

— There are now 169 House and 31 Senate cosponsors of the Repealing Big Brother Overreach Act, the bill that would eliminate the BOI reporting requirement for small businesses. This week, NFIB staff did multiple interviews on this topic:

Josh McLeod joined Washington Report, Issues Today, KLZ Radio in Colorado, and WPTF Morning News in North Carolina.

Brad Close joined The David Webb Show (press release here).

Jeff Brabant joined “Emery on Iowa” on WHO Radio in Iowa.

— Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg and Director of Research and Policy Analysis Peter Hansen penned an op-ed in Forbes regarding recession concerns. Dunkelberg also published a separate op-ed in Forbes on the state of the small business economy.

— NFIB’s Small Business Legal Center released its July Docket.

Included in the newsletter is the fact that NFIB participated in 7 Supreme Court cases this year, representing over 10% of the term’s total cases.

Next Main Street Minute: August 11. All Main Streets Minutes can be found on the NFIB website here. Pull down the California tab in the upper-right-hand corner.

On July 10, NFIB State Director Jeff Burdett participated in the Governor’s Small Business Summit – Rockport-Fulton, hosted by the Texas Economic Development & Tourism Office. The event featured a fireside chat with Burdett and Texas Association of Business (TAB) President & CEO Glenn Hamer, co-chairs of Governor Greg Abbott’s Small Business Freedom Council.

“It’s always a pleasure to meet with small business owners,” Burdett said after the event. “Here in Texas, we’ve prioritized pro-growth policies to ensure our small business owners can do what they do best: meet their customers’ needs and invest in their communities.”

During the discussion, Burdett and Hamer highlighted several pro-small business victories secured in the 2025 regular session, including HB 9 that increases the business personal property tax (also known as “inventory tax”) exemption, and SB 14, creating the Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office, which will make it easier to run a small business in the state.

“Thanks to the feedback we got from small business owners across the state, we were able to work with the Governor’s team and lawmakers in Austin to put those ideas into action with the passage and signature of HB 9 and SB 14,” Burdett said.

CLICK HERE to view the Small Business Freedom Council’s report.  CLICK HERE to learn more about the 2025 regular session.

The 2025 Legislative Session officially concluded on June 2, 2025, wrapping up 140-days of activity on issues that directly impact Texas’ small businesses. 

Throughout the session, NFIB tracked more than 200 pieces of legislation—the good, the bad, and the ugly. We killed many bad bills and successfully passed most of our priority legislation.  

We also had a very successful Small Business Day with more than 100 NFIB small business owners and sponsors at our event.  House Speaker Dustin Burrows, who is also an NFIB member, spoke to our members about the importance of engagement at the Capitol. I appreciate all the involvement of those who attended. 

Here are a few legislative highlights from the session: 

SECURING MUCH-NEEDED INVENTORY TAX RELIEF
NFIB led the effort to pass HB 9 (Meyer/Bettencourt) to increase the business personal property tax (also known as “inventory tax”) exemption from $2,500 to $125,000!  The inventory tax applies to anything used in one’s business, including inventory, furniture, machinery, supplies, and more – regardless of whether a business nets a profit. We pulled out all the stops to get this across the line, including a heavy lobby effort, committee testimony, and a media issue campaign.  

This proposal will now head to voters for approval on the November ballot.  When approved, this will result in annual tax savings of $500 million! 

CUTTING REGULATORY RED-TAPE
I was proud to be appointed to co-chair Governor Abbott’s Small Business Freedom Council. Our mission was to collect feedback from small business owners and state agencies and make recommendations to eliminate unnecessary regulatory burdens on small businesses.  These recommendations resulted in bills such as: 

• SB 14 (Parker/Capriglione) – Establishes the Texas Regulatory Efficiency Office within the governor’s office to identify opportunities to reduce regulatory, administrative, and licensing burdens for small businesses. 
• HB 5195 (Capriglione/Alvarado) – Modernizes state agency systems, including the improvement of online access to services and the reduction of paperwork requirements. 
• HB 11 (Phelan/Middleton) – Expands occupational licensing reciprocity to make it easier for out-of-state workers to transfer their skills to Texas.  

ADDRESSING THE RISING COST OF HEALTH INSURANCE
Small business owners consistently rank “cost of providing health insurance” as one of the top issues affecting their businesses. In response to this, NFIB helped pass the following:  

• HB 138 (Dean/Bettencourt) – creates transparency by establishing a process to estimate how proposed legislation will affect the cost of private health coverage. 

ESTABLISHING A CYBERSECURITY SAFE HARBOR
Small businesses are increasingly the victims of cyberattacks. NFIB spearheaded the effort to pass a Cybersecurity Safe Harbor bill:  

• SB 2610 (Blanco/Capriglione) protects small businesses from certain legal damages in data breach lawsuits, if the business has implemented a cybersecurity program. 

There is still work to be done. 

Unfortunately, some legislation didn’t make it across the finish line. NFIB supported legislation regarding credit card swipe fees and preventing lawsuit abuse that drives up the cost of insurance. We know that these are two crucial challenges facing small businesses. Although these efforts were not successful, we are looking forward to continuing the fight next session.  

• SB 2056 (Hancock/Patterson) would have provided transparency and competition in the credit card marketplace. This would have resulted in healthy competition which would naturally address the rapidly increasing rates of credit card swipe fees.  
• SB 30 (Schwertner/Bonnen) would have addressed the problem of “nuclear verdicts” by preventing plaintiff attorneys from presenting over-inflated medical damages in court. This would prevent minor fender bender accidents from yielding massive judgements in court. Unfortunately, the lawsuit environment in Texas is bankrupting businesses, impeding job creation and threatening the state’s economic wellbeing. 

Continuing the Fight for Small Business 

As the 2025 legislative session wraps up, NFIB Texas celebrates our shared victories: securing tax relief, reducing regulatory hurdles, blocking costly mandates, and elevating the voice of Main Street businesses. When small business owners speak, Texas lawmakers listen. 

A heartfelt thank you to every NFIB member who contacted legislators, testified at committee hearings, or met with elected officials. Your active involvement, backed by the strength of more than 20,000 Texas small business owners, drives our advocacy at the Capitol. 

Jeff Burdett 

Texas State Director, NFIB 

The following is a sample of 2025 media coverage about NFIB California’s small-business agenda. This story will be updated as new stories are published. Click here to see the media coverage from 2024.

Golden State Today, May 22—NFIB California’s news release about two new online tools showing the benefit of making the Small Business Deduction permanent receives coverage from the online news site.

KNZR 1560 AM Bakersfield, May 21—Jeff Brabant, NFIB’s vice president for federal government relations, talked small-business issues on The Terry Maxwell Show.

Golden State Today, May 19—In an article about lawsuits, online news site quotes State Director John Kabateck on NFIB’s support for Senate Bill 84.

The Center Square, May 1—NFIB’s study on the importance of the Small Business Deduction mentioned in a story about another study by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation. Story also ran in 10 Center Squar subscribing media such as MSN Money.

KABC 790 AM, Los Angeles, April 17—Josselin Castillo from NFIB’s Federal Government Relations team discusses the importance of making the 20% Small Business Deduction permanent on the Mottek on Money show.

Elk Grove Citizen, April 15—NFIB California’s news release on its Small Business Deduction poll runs on websites of subscribers to MPG Media Services.

Lake County Record-Bee, March 11—NFIB news release announcing new vice chair and PAC chair reprinted.

Radio Bamdad, March 10—The only Farsi-language online radio station in Northern California interviews State Director John Kabateck about NFIB, small business, and the Legislature. The station is run by the Iranian American Cultural and Education Center in Sacramento.

NewsBreak, March 8—NFIB California’s news release on NFIB’s Small Business Deduction poll runs in online news site.

Elk Grove Citizen, March 3—NFIB California’s comments on the January Small Business Optimism Index published.

Cirrkus, January 23—In a story from the online curators of content website, filmmaker, publisher, and author Victor Migalchan praises the influence NFIB and State Director John Kabateck have had on his success.

Lassen County Times, January 22—Coverage of NFIB California’s news release announcing its legislative agenda.

2024 Media Coverage

2023 Media Coverage

2022 Media Coverage

2021 Media Coverage

2019-2020 Media Coverage

Worker safety is a priority for small businesses. Maintaining a safe environment is critical for worker satisfaction and retention, controlling workers’ comp and other employment costs, and for ensuring quality work.

For small business owners, safety is also personal since workers are often family, friends, or co-owners.

Unfortunately, Vermont lawmakers are considering a proposal to impose strict workplace temperature regulations on a wide range of employers in the state (S.153, H.348).

Under the threat of a lawsuit by a worker, the proposal requires small employers to make complex judgments about supplies, weather, worksite conditions, medical conditions, training, and more. The regulations would apply to indoor and outdoor worksites, and during hot and cold periods.

Worried about getting sued when it’s hot or cold? Click here to TAKE ACTION today!

Check out NFIB’s guide to Protecting Your Workers from the Heat.

What’s Required: The Vermont proposal imposes the following planning and education requirements:

1) Workplace Thermometer. Employers must display a thermometer at each indoor and outdoor worksite and in work vehicles. The thermometer must be capable of measuring the “wet bulb globe temperature.”

2) Prevention Plan. All employers must develop a written extreme injury and illness prevention plan with work-site specific information, including list of work activities covered and factors that could increase the likelihood of injury or illness; a plan for compliance with the requirements of this legislation; information on education and training; and emergency response procedures.

The plan must be updated annually, whenever there is a change to work conditions, or when there is a temperature-related work incident.

3) Response Plan. Employers must also prepare a detailed emergency response plan and have procedures to relieve, monitor, and offer first aid to employees experiencing signs of illness or injury. Employers must take immediate action to reduce the employee’s body temperature in a heat emergency or increase body temperature in a cold emergency.

4) Education and Training. Employers must provide education and training at no cost that covers information about and risk factors for temperature-related illnesses and injuries; the importance of proper equipment, taking breaks, staying hydrated, and reporting symptoms; location of break areas and water; the employer’s plan and how to access the plan; and the right to protection from retaliation.

Training must be provided to new employees upon hire and all employees annually, as well as when job duties change, the employer’s policies change, or there’s a heat wave or “significant drop” in temperature expected. Supervisors must be appropriately trained. Training must be provided in a language and literacy level that each employee understands.

Heat Injury and Illness Prevention. When the temperature exceeds 80 degrees, employers must provide:

– an effective means of communication for employees to contact a supervisor to address concerns about the temperature

– access to potable drinking water that is “readily accessible,” “suitably cool,” and “of sufficient quantity to provide access to one quart of drinking water per employee per hour.”

– when working outdoors, an area for all employees can take a break that includes natural or artificial shade, or air conditioning in a vehicle, building, or trailer

– when working indoors, a readily accessible break area that is air conditioned or has “increased air movement” and “if appropriate, dehumidification”

Employers must encourage employees to request preventative cool down breaks “of not less than ten minutes as needed,” monitor employees for symptoms of heat illness and heat emergency, and provide first aid or emergency response as needed.

Other requirements include ensuring proper functioning of equipment intended to cool employees, ensuring that work vehicles have functioning air condition (unclear if this applies to personal vehicles, work vehicles, or both), and an “acclimatization protocol” to gradually introduce new hires and workers returning from an absence longer than 14 days to temperatures above 80 degrees.

Additional mandatory rest requirements apply when the temperature reaches 90 degrees and 100 degrees, including monitoring via a “buddy system in which co-workers observe each other,” observation by a supervisor (no more than 1 supervisor: 20 employees), or effective two-way communication with solo employees.

Cold Illness Injury and Prevention. The cold plan imposes similar requirements as the heat plan but with variations intended for temperatures below 60 degrees.

This includes things like ensuring outdoor workers can take breaks in a “warm and draft-free setting,” have access to warm beverages, can change out of wet clothes, and have access to heated vehicles.

When the temperature falls below 40 degrees and 30 degrees, additional specific requirements kick in, such as: a minimum 15 minute rest break every two hours; dry replacement clothes; and personal protective equipment for the employee’s ears, face, hands, and feet.

Enforcement: Employees are guaranteed protection from retaliation for exercising their rights under the proposal. Employees can sue employers for violations of the proposal’s requirements.

Exemptions. The proposed regulation exempts:

(i) work activities where there is “no reasonable expectation” of exposure to temperatures below 60 degrees or above 80 degrees

(ii) work environments where employees are exposed to temperatures below 60 degrees or above 80 degrees for 15 minutes or less in any 60-minute period

(iii) work activities performed indoors or in vehicles where heating and air conditioning systems consistently keep the “ambient temperature” between 60 and 80 degrees

(iv) firefighting or emergency response covered by state or federal regulation

(v) work performed from home or a place of the employee’s choosing

(vi) “sedentary work activities at indoor work areas that only involve 4 some combination of the following: sitting, occasional standing and walking 5 for brief periods or time, and occasional lifting of objects weighing less than 6 10 pounds”

As written, employment would have to satisfy all six conditions to the exempt. Further, it’s unclear how an employer or manager could claim an exemption under (ii) without constantly monitoring the employee with a stop watch.

The bill appears to exempt an employer in their entirety from these regulations if all employees meet the criteria above. However, again, all employees would have to meet all six criteria as the bill is currently written.

Nationwide Temperature Regulation Push: Lawmakers and regulators across the country are increasingly seeking to override common sense with complicated, inflexible and one-size-fits-all mandates.

In 2024, the Biden Administration proposed the Heat Injury and Illness Prevention (HIIP) OSHA rule. The Trump Administration ordered a freeze on all pending OSHA rules earlier this year, and the HIIP rule has not been finalized.

NFIB opposed HIIP on the grounds that it exceeded OSHA’s authority, was ill-suited to small employers, and would require the hiring of costly outside human resources, safety, and legal consultants for work that was already being done by most small businesses.

NFIB’s comments reference feedback provided to OSHA by a Small Business Advocacy Review Panel established to review HIIP:

Many SERs felt that a standard is unnecessary because there are existing incentives that cause employers to implement heat-related protections at their workplace. Several SERs shared that they are facing a tight labor market and will lose employees to their competitors if they don’t provide them with a safe workplace—this incentivizes employers to take workplace health and safety seriously, making a heat standard unnecessary. One of these SERs said that if an employer does not take their workers’ safety and health seriously, employees will quit or complain on social media or employer review sites which would hurt the employer’s ability to hire people. A few SERs told the Panel that their workers’ compensation system creates an incentive to keep their workers safe from all hazards including heat injury and illness.

In January 2025, the U.S. Small Business Administration also weighed in on HIIP with concerns the burden placed on small employers:

“OSHA has not provided exceptions to the mandatory (high heat trigger) rest break provisions (i.e., 15 minutes every two hours) where materials like asphalt and concrete are time-sensitive and must be applied upon delivery. Further, requiring inflexible break schedules can create a greater hazard in industries like tree care and telecommunications tower erection and maintenance, where climbing up and down from heights is the primary safety concern and can introduce a greater hazard to employee safety. Finally, requiring artificial shade and temporary structures may be infeasible in operations such as road construction, where vehicular traffic and the rapidly changing work environment can introduce greater hazards.”

SBA’s comments also highlighted the regulation’s requirement that small employers provide training on and make complex medical decisions; that heat temperature triggers were too low and should not start until 90 or 100 degrees; and that small employers with fewer than 50 employees should be exempt from the written planning portions of the rule.

Concerned about one-size-fits-all temperature regulations?

Worried about getting sued when it’s hot or cold? Click here to TAKE ACTION today!

Welcome to the May 5-9 edition of the NFIB California Main Street Minute from your small-business advocacy team in Sacramento.

NFIB At the Table Shaping Policy for California Small Businesses

The Voice of Small Business in California was heard on two big issues last week on panels it was invited to participate on.

Last Wednesday (April 30), NFIB California State Director John Kabateck spoke to a group organized by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), the state’s premier research organization. The invitation from PPIC Vice President Sarah Bohn gives more details.

“In 2025, the Public Policy Institute of California’s Economic Policy Center is embarking upon a year-long exploration of what California businesses are experiencing and need to start, grow, and sustain their efforts in California. To help inform this work, I am creating a short-term advisory group that can provide guidance in our effort to identify the full set of relevant perspectives and hear from a wide range of voices throughout the state as we conduct this analysis.

“Our intention is to consult with this group throughout the year as we seek to more fully understand specific factors influencing business sustainability, including business formation and subsequent growth, whether to stay in California or potentially relocate outside of the state, and other considerations affecting profitability and risk management over time.”

Kabateck reports that the inaugural meeting of the advisory group went well and highlighted the issues of retail theft and PAGA reform as two good examples of how a bipartisan consensus can come together and achieve policy ends. Wage-and-hour reform and other workplace policies were examples of what the state can improve on and how the advisory group can inform those improvements.

Health Care

The next day (May 1), Kabateck helped kick off the latest outreach program of another advisory group, one he’s been a member of for the past four years, the All-Payer Claims Database (APCD) run by the California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI).

According to an ABCs of APCDs How States Are Using Claims Data to Understand and Improve Care issue brief put out by the California Health Care Foundation, “All-payer claims databases (APCDs) systemically collect administrative data, including medical, pharmacy, and dental claims, eligibility files, and provider (physician and facility) files. These claims are created when an insured patient receives care or fills a prescription, and include a record of what was provided, who provided it, how much was charged, and how much was paid. Data are submitted directly to a central point, often a state agency or its vendor.

“This information could be used by policymakers, health care providers, plans, employers, and academic researchers to understand regional variation in care delivery and price, monitor population health trends, and ensure patients have adequate access to care. Several states have created transparency tools for consumers using APCD data.”

Put succinctly, “It’s about having the most transparent, up-to-date information to help small business owners and all Californians make the most informed decisions about affordable, accessible, health-care products and services,” said Kabateck.

NFIB members are no strangers to the health-care affordability issue. “It is the most popular but costly benefit offered by about 30% of small employers,” according to NFIB’s policy paper, Addressing the Health Insurance Affordability Crisis for Small Businesses. “For nearly 40 years, NFIB members have consistently identified the rising cost of health insurance as their number one business concern.”

Included in the 11 recommendations NFIB makes is “Promote  Price Transparency and Price Certainty,” which is what HCAI seeks to do.

“Through NFIB, small business is not only at the table on public policy research but also leading the charge, especially on the issue of health care,” said Kabateck “So much of getting the right public policies in place requires keeping the drumbeat of your cause going. Our presence on the two advisory committees helps achieve what we’re trying to do.”

The Legislature

As one veteran Capitol observer reported to his clients, “It was supposed to be the week the California Legislature wrapped up its fiscal work with mechanical efficiency. Instead, it turned into a marathon of meltdowns.”

Politico California explains what happened in this story, GOOOOOAAAAALLLLLL: Assembly Dems keep scoring for Republicans, and the San Francisco Chronicle joined the media pile-on in this story, Are California Democrats actively trying to make themselves irrelevant?

So, then, next week’s Main Street Minute will have a better update on the small business legislative agenda.

NFIB in the News

“The TCJA [Tax Cuts and Jobs Act] has insulated small businesses from skyrocketing costs of living and doing business since the pandemic, NFIB California Director John Kabateck told The Center Square. He added that greater losses in private sector employment could impact funding for critical public services.

“’We would have seen more people in the unemployment line and small businesses and employers fleeing California. This has proven to give them the ability to stay open and keep operating,’ Kabateck said during an interview. ‘When small business owners thrive, consumers thrive, and so do our public services. If this were to expire, we will see fewer jobs and businesses on Main Street, which means less dollars going to our public coffers.’”

The story ran on nine of The Center Square’s subscribing media, including MSN Money.

Last Friday (May 2), NFIB sent this news release, California Comment on Latest NFIB Jobs Report.

Upcoming Events

— Friday, May 9, NFIB Small Business Roundtable with Assemblymember Juan Alanis, 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., Availability Professional Staffing, 2813 Coffee Road Building A, Modesto. For more information and to register, click here.

— August 26, NFIB California’s Leadership Day at the Capitol. More details to come in future Main Street Minutes.

Calendar

— May 14: Deadline for the May revise of the state budget

— May 26: Memorial Day. Legislature not in session.

— June 6: Last Day for Senate and Assembly to pass bills introduced in their chambers.

— June 15: Budget bill must be passed by midnight.

— July 4: Independence Day. Legislature not in session.

— July 18-August 17 Summer recess.

— September 12, 2025-January 5, 2026: Interim recess of the 2025-2026 session of the California State Legislature.

— October 15: Last day for governor sign or veto bills passed before September 12.

National

Highlights from NFIB Federal Government Relations Principal Josselin Castillo’s weekly report

— As Congress reconvened, team FGR [NFIB’s Federal Government Relations] had over 30 direct member office touches in one week as the reconciliation process kicked off.

— NFIB Leadership attended meetings with Senior White House staff on economic priorities and small business trends.

— The House voted on multiple Congressional Review Act measures. NFIB key-voted legislation that would rescind the federal grant to California to implement more stringent vehicle emissions standards, therefore increasing energy costs. Press release. Key vote.

Next Main Street Minute, May 12. All Main Streets Minutes can be found on the NFIB website here. Pull down the California tab in the upper-right-hand corner.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BOSTON, MA (April 30, 2025) – The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation’s leading small business advocacy organization, reacts to the Massachusetts House of Representatives including a Secure Choice Savings Program policy amendment in the FY2026 state budget:

“Without a public hearing to determine the financial impact on Massachusetts small business and their workers, state lawmakers shoehorned a major policy change into the $61.5 billion FY2026 budget mandating businesses of 25 employees or more enroll their workers into a state-run retirement plan or face hefty penalties,” said Christopher Carlozzi, Massachusetts state director for NFIB. “Small businesses already deal with a plethora of state-imposed payroll deductions ranging from UI taxes to PFML, as well as a new pay transparency mandate, they do not need the additional burden and compliance costs of yet another.”

Secure Choice Savings Program bills were filed in past legislative years and are on the docket again for the current session. When those bills appeared before the Joint Committee on Financial Services it allowed for public comments on the legislation’s fiscal impact, but now the House circumvented the public hearing process and opted to conceal this major policy change in a consolidated budget amendment with hundreds of other subject matters and topics.

“Again, lawmakers’ policy choices and rhetoric are in conflict.” continued Carlozzi. “Are automatic withdrawals from worker paychecks and added compliance costs for small businesses a step towards affordability? Major policy changes that impact a large number of workers and businesses in the Commonwealth should receive the public feedback and scrutiny they deserve, not hidden in a $61.5 billion budget bill that legislators must back in order to keep the Commonwealth running.”

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For more than 80 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven. Since our founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses, and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.