In response to a woefully lacking voting record in support of small businesses statewide, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said it plans to educate new and returning members of California’s general assembly about the severity of crime, inflation, and homelessness.
“Every legislator must be hearing about the increase of crime and homelessness in their communities and yet what's surprising and disappointing is nothing is moving forward that will help them help mitigate this,” said John Kabateck, California state director for the NFIB. “There were 17 bills in both public safety committees, nothing progressed.”
The NFIB’s voting record for the 2021-22 legislative session graded all 40 California Senators and 80 Assembly members on 11 bills impacting California small businesses that were approved by both chambers and signed into law by Gov. Newsom.
Those bills included the Cannabis Testing in Workplace (AB 2188), which prohibits employers from discriminating against an applicant or firing an employee based on a test that shows the presence of cannabis metabolites as well as the Expansion of Employee Leave (AB 1041), which broadens the list of individuals for which an employee can take leave under the California Family Rights Act and the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014.
“Policy makers on both sides could have made decisions that were at a minimum politically expedient during an election year and yet they failed to act so, we're very disappointed in that,” Kabateck told the Southern California Record.
The Expansion of Employee Leave bill passed the Assembly 58-15 and the Senate 31-7 while the Cannabis Testing in Workplace bill passed the Assembly 49- 18 and the Senate 28-11.
“We're disappointed, but not surprised that there continues to be an influence from labor unions in California,” Kabateck said.
The Fast-Food Accountability and Standards (FAST) Recovery Act, also known as Assembly Bill 257, was approved by the Assembly 47-19, the Senate 21-12 and signed into law by Newsom.
FAST establishes the Food Franchise Standards Council (FFSC), which will create new standards for fast food restaurant workers in the areas of wages, working hours, and other working conditions.
“We are really disappointed in policy makers who recognize small businesses need help as they crawl out of the COVID hole and unions make up such a small percentage of the workforce,” Kabateck said. “This is a classic example of how much control big labor still has on a good amount of policy.”
Although the NFIB designated the 2021-22 legislative session as one of the most anti-business in state history, there were 15 senators and assembly members with 100% pro-small-business voting records and 14 with 75% to 90%.
“What we're hopeful for is that we are finding a lot of pro-business democrats who are gaining popularity in the early polling results and even Californians, who are in the deep blue sea politically, are realizing that change must happen and it needs to happen today,” Kabateck added.