I received numerous responses to my email regarding AB 400 [Ma Paid Sick Leave] and the overwhelming majority of you opposed.

For those of you that said you would send letters I am holding back sending our sample letter because I will be meeting with Assemblywoman Ma on Thursday at 4:30. Attending the meeting with me is Board member Stephen Cornell and SF Chamber VP of Public Policy Jim Lazarus.

If you have not responded to the email and would like to send a letter on this please let me know and I will send you sample letter.

For details of bill go to www.leginfo.ca.gov

Small Business California will be supporting SB 823 [Corbett]. There was one Board member who voted to oppose with the rest supporting.

This bill will create a Buy California program which will be voluntary. There was one change we insisted on and that was that the company must be headquartered in California. We think that there are situations where a company is not headquartered in California but does substantial manufacturing in California and therefore should be given the ability so they so choose to be able to label themselves as part of the Buy California program. There are no state funds requested for the program.

Again for full details go to www.leginfo.ca.gov

I hope you find these emails helpful and you agree that Small Business California is providing value to the small business community of California and is representing your interest.

I would again like to point out that our lobbyist, Lori Kammerer, is doing a terrific job for us in Sacramento and attends numerous committee meetings and hearings which makes us very visible. Legislators are approaching us constantly to seek our support because of Lori’s visibility. Lori is paid for her efforts but certainly not what she is worth to the organization.

We also have a political consultant Jim Ross in SF who volunteers his time and does our press releases. All board members and myself are volunteers. I hope you feel we are representing your interest.

To those of you that have joined Small Business California thank you. For those of you that have not I hope you will consider doing so. The cost for businesses with less than $1 million in receipts is $150 a year. For those over $1 million $300. I am bias but I don’t think there is any organization in California that represents the broad interest of California small business better.

You can join On Line by going to www.smallbusinesscalifornia.org

Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA 94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188