While Gov. Gavin Newsom last week signed three bills designed to take pressure off small businesses amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the fate of highly debated workplace legislation still has not been decided.
SB 1447 would provide qualified small businesses with a tax credit for hiring and rehiring employees, as an option to help them persevere through the coronavirus economic fallout.
“We like that tax credit,” John Kabateck, California state director with the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) told the Northern California Record. “It’s a step in the right direction of giving small business owners the relief they need and helping to get more people back to work and lowering our record unemployment.”
SB 115, which is a budget trailer bill from the Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, allocates $561 million for fiscal year 2020-21. “This includes $411.5 million to advance economic stimulus with $230.5 million to help jumpstart construction projects,” according to a news release from the governor’s office.
The third bill, AB 1577, will ensure business owners will not have to pay taxes on Paycheck Protection (PPP) Loans. The measure, which will conform state law to federal law, addresses a concern that has arisen in a number of states.
“The PPP is to help businesses stay afloat; this will further that goal by preventing surprise tax bills,” Kabateck said.
The business community forged efforts to halt enactment of SB 1383’s unpaid leave mandate, which still awaits the governor’s veto or signature.
“A recent NFIB survey shows more than three-quarters of respondents already make some sort of comprehensive leave program available to employees, and to mandate an employer to do that when there’s no money in the till is going to have the opposite effect,” Kabateck said.
Businesses also remain concerned about AB 685, particularly whether its notification protocols for workplace COVID-19 cases will end up unfairly blacklisting businesses when it’s not clear whether an employee became infected on the job or elsewhere, Kabateck said.
The bill has not yet been signed nor vetoed.
“There’s a better way to manage workplace notification and information sharing,” Kabateck said. “Surely, it’s incumbent to make sure their workers have a safe and healthy environment, but when most medical experts still don’t understand how this virus spreads, how is a small business on Main Street expected to be responsible? It places blame on uncertain mom and pops for a sickness that an employee could have picked up someplace else. It unfairly blacklists that small employer and business.”