Small Business Development Centers/ President's State of the Union Speech/ Independent Contractors/ Survey

The President has signed the FY 14 budget and the good news is that the Small Business Development Centers, nationally have been given just over $113,600,000. This is a slight increase from this year and eliminates the sequestration cuts for the current year. As you may be aware the sequestration cut was 8%.

Now, what is important, is that California contributed money to help the California SBDCs  meet their SBA match. California is one of the few states in the country, if not the only state, that does not contribute to its SBDC program. 

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The  President gave his  5^th State of the Union speech last night. He says that this will be a year of action and that he will try to do more in taking Executive action. One of these actions is an increase in the minimum wage for Federal workers to $10.15. What did you think of the speech? Is the President heading in the right direction? Can he really do much with a gridlocked  Congress?

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I have written in previous emails that Small Business California is looking to pass legislation that would standardize the definition of Independent Contractors in California. Right now there are multiple definitions between EDD, IRS, Labor, etc. This is a real problem for small businesses. Upon reflection  we have decided to wait until next session as we want to make sure we have labor and other business organizations in agreement with the final language. We are talking to labor and they seem interested in trying to work with us.

Next week Small Business California will be sending out its annual survey. We have done this every year since 2005 and have received responses from every county in California. The results of the survey are sent to every member of the Assembly, every State Senator, the Governor , Senators Feinstein and Boxer, and every House member. I hope you will take about 10 minutes to complete the survey and will forward it to your colleagues. You can see the results of past surveys by going to www.smallbusinesscalifornia.org and clicking on surveys.
 


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

Annual Survey

Small Business California will be sending its annual survey out around the 1st of February.  Please take a look at last years and let me know what questions could be changed to make it better. I would appreciate you looking closely at the issues and advising if we have missed anything. You can access the survey by going to www.smallbusinesscalifornia.org  Click on the annual  survey tab at the top of our home page. Please get your responses back by Friday, January 24th. Could you also let me know if you would be willing to circulate the survey.
 

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Each year Small Business California recognizes people in government that have been helpful to small businesses. Please let me know if you have someone that deserves recognition. Send me their name, contact information and what they have done to further the small business cause.  I will then send a letter of appreciation from Small Business California noting your comments.  
 


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

Unemployment/ National Labor Relations Board/ Volunteers in Medicine

Because of the recent recession, California Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust fund continues to have a deficit. As a result, it has taken loans from the federal government to pay for the state UI benefits. It had until Nov. 10th to repay the loan or California employers would be assessed with additional FUTA taxes. For the 2013 tax year, California employers will be subject to an additional 0.9% or $63 per employee. The tax is due with the annual FUTA (940) return, which is on Jan 31, 2014.

For more information about the additional FUTA taxes, please visit:
http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/FUTA-Credit-Reduction
and
http://www.edd.ca.gov/payroll_taxes/Federal_Unemployment_Tax_Act_Tax_Increases.htm

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The California  Employers Association just sent a notice out that after a two year legal battle with employers who challenged the rule, the National Relations Board won't pursue efforts to require businesses to display a large poster advising employees of their right to unionize. This announcement was made on January 6th.

The notice that would have been required would have been an 11x17 poster and failure to do so would be considered an unfair labor practice.

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I thought you would be interested in this article about Volunteers in Medicine that appeared in the Philanthropy Roundtable’s Winter 2014 magazine. Volunteers in Medicine is the organization that takes retired doctors, nurses and lay volunteers who provide free health services to the working uninsured. I am Vice Chair of this organization and Clinic by the Bay, which I co-founded is one of the 96 VIM Clinic around the country.



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

US Chamber removes opposition to ACA/ Scam: treasury dept. of legal affairs

This week Tom Donahue of the US Chamber stated that the US Chamber was ending their efforts to block or derail the Affordable Care Act and are now focused on making this work. Interesting development and just speaking for myself,  I think this will be a lot more productive than their past efforts.
 

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I received an email from a member about what appears to be a scam. Have any of you received similar calls?

 I have just had an attempt at a phone scam purporting to come from the  Treasury Department Office of Legal Affairs.  They didn't get very far.  They claimed that if I didn't do what they wanted, the Treasury Dept would be taking enforcement action in 30 mins.  Phone number used  559 328 2394. I said "this is a scam" and hung up.  No idea what they would have wanted me to do after that

It sounded like the same people who were pretending to be Microsoft last year, though I have no proof of that. Given that tax season is on us, maybe we should get the word out.
 

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Disappointing numbers on the job front. It was announced this morning that only 74,000 jobs were added in December. Surprisingly, the unemployment rate went down from 7% to 6.7% because of baby boomers taking retirement and people dropping out of the labor force because they are not looking for jobs. What do you make of this? Is it an aberration or a signal that job growth has stagnated. Do you think the Federal Reserve should revisit their reduced purchasing of bonds?



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

SBA Regional Administrator/ Bank Lending

Donna Davis has been appointed SBAS Regional Administrator of District 9. She is taking Elizabeth Echols' place who is now running for Assembly in District 15 with Nancy  Skinner being termed out.

Donna has a strong background working with small businesses and last served as head of the Arizona Small Business Association. Small Business California looks forward to working with you Donna.

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I am always interested in hearing from small businesses about which banks are working best in your access to capital and credit needs. Which banks are making SBA loans and which banks seem to really try to understand the needs of small business? Please let me know what your experiences are.

I also am interested to find out if you think crowd funding will be helpful to your business.



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

Voters

I just got back from Renaissance weekend with my niece. What a great opportunity to meet people  and discuss issues with the foremost minds in this country and to a lesser degree people from outside the country.

I was particularly intrigued by the discussion of grid lock in Washington.  I asked a person if the voters in this country have changed over the last 50 years. I certainly understand that more minorities and woman are now voting which clearly changes voting patterns but what about voters outside this group. His response was that the media has expanded coverage so people have more information and there is more negative research. He also said that it appears there are more people voting on a single issue and their issue becomes a litmus test.

Keep in mind that most politicians given these factors are forced to vote along the lines of their constituency if they want to get elected even if it is not good policy. The Tea Party will go after those that do not hold the party line.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree with this assessment? Is there any hope this will change? Any ideas how to change this?

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Two bits of information I learned at the event are that a fire fly is a beatle and that pregnant woman have the highest survival rate of a heart attack.

Scott Hauge
President

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