An insider's look: Politics and business

This article is reprinted with permission of the Monterey County Business Council and their weekly publication Friday Facts. Friday Facts is a Weekly Newsletter Promoting Monterey County: Open for Business Business Council Members identified as (BCM)

You may contact The Monterey Business Council at www.mcbc.biz, www.competitiveclusters.com, or www.mcbusiness.org .   

An insider's look: Politics and business

The following update on legislation affecting small business was submitted by Small Business California President Scott Hauge. According to MCBC President Mary Ann Leffel, the Monterey County Business Council was an active participant alongside Small Business California in helping to shape legislation.

"On Friday I went to the last day of legislative session in Sacramento. I wish every small business could experience this as it is truly an eye opener on how Sacramento works. Deals and politics reign supreme and I fear many times policy takes a back seat," says Hauge.

"Small Business California continues to grow in influence in Sacramento. Here are the final results of some of the most important bills we have been involved in:

• SB 863: Workers compensation reform. The bill passed both the Senate and the Assembly. Thursday rumor had it the Democratic leadership was going to kill the bill and take it up next session. It rose from the ashes and  was resurrected. Small Business testified  in support of the bill. We played a major role in getting this passed, with 24 associations along with Small Business California  and 125 small businesses supporting the bill. Had this not passed, small business would be seeing major increase in their workers compensation premiums.

• AB 2408: This bill would have eliminated the Net Operating Carry Back on California tax returns The bill never came up. Small Business California and 34 associations opposed it, along with 101 small businesses.

• SB323: This bill would have required that the 60,3000 LLCs in California would have had to refile based on the new regulations in the bill. Small Business California was the only organization that spoke out asking for a grandfather clause which we got inserted in the bill. Conservatively this saved over $1 billion for California businesses and maybe more importantly protected businesses that did not refile by 2014 from a tax nightmare.

• AB2081: This was a small business access to capital bill to allow solicitation of accredited investors. Small Business California sponsored this bill. While the JOBS bill in Washington will eventually allow this, our bill contained 20 investor protections. The JOBS bill basically has none. Here is where politics really raised its ugly face. This was a two thirds bill. The Republicans decided Thursday night that their caucus would oppose all bills that required a two thirds vote. Our bill got caught in the crossfire. Now in fairness to the Republicans, the Democrats were holding back sending bills from the Assembly to the Senate so this action was taken. What is tragic about this is that California-accredited investors in California  will have no protection from the scammers and fraud artist if they invest in JOBS-created securities. "

Small Business California is a proactive, non-partisan business advocate for California’s 3.2 million small businesses. For membership and other information, see www.smallbusinesscalifornia.org or call (415) 680-2188.