Comstock's magazine 1119 - November 2019 | Page 33

NFIB has long polled its members about
“problems and priorities.” What issues
land at the top?
We know what issues nationally and at the
local level continue to resonate among our
small-business members: soaring health
care costs continue to be a big concern,
especially what health care reform means
for mom and pops. We were the lead plain-
tiff challenging Obamacare when it was
passed because our members were very
concerned about the mandates, taxes, re-
porting requirements that were really very
unfairly disproportionately tilted against
small-business owners. In polling, we have
found that soaring energy costs (have) his-
torically been second in terms of concerns.
… We also found nationally that 45 percent
of our members take measures to make
their businesses more energy efficient —
solar roofs (and) paneling, other methods
— without the heavy hand of government
ordering them to do so. The rising cost of
taxes and the cost of doing business on
Main Street (is another concern). … Anoth-
er issue is frivolous lawsuits and liability.
Usually, plaintiffs’ attorneys will target a
local salon, a local cafe, a small auto shop,
because they are more vulnerable, they
have fewer resources, they usually don’t
have a legal team that a big corporation
does, so they are usually a much easier
target … and more likely to settle. … The
other issue is the slew of reporting and pa-
perwork that a small-business owner has to
do. A small-business owner is expected to
be an expert on ever-changing health care
laws and labor laws and other tax issues.
Did the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
provide relief to small businesses?
That is a classic example where we had to
educate Republicans and Democrats alike.
Republican-led Congress was obviously —
as it was making this cake — not thinking
at all about Main Street. They had Wall
Street in mind and other interests. It took
NFIB to loudly speak with a bullhorn and
urge them to make sure small businesses
had hope and relief and support in this law,
AB 5 is terrible policy
that strikes at the heart
of entrepreneurism and small-
business success in California. It
will make it next to impossible
for the single parent, college
student, senior or everyday
Californian trying to make ends
meet to find flexible, promising job
opportunities in their communities.
and as a result, the most important cor-
nerstone (is) a 20-percent deduction for
small businesses. We’re delighted that was
included because of our noise; we would
just like to make sure our policymakers …
make it permanent past 2025.
W hat other tax issues are on your
radar?
There are some specific tax issues this year
front and center, (including) sales tax on
services. There has been a continued at-
tempt to try to expand what is already the
highest statewide sales tax in the nation,
which is currently on goods and products,
to the services industries. We have a prob-
lem with that. A lot of small-business own-
ers have a problem with that and consum-
ers should be up in arms. This most recent
iteration applies specifically to business to
business. So the sales tax on services would
not apply to business to consumer … Jim
Relles with Relles Florist in Sacramento has
mentioned that he would pay through the
nose for his fleet of drivers, for his con-
tractors, for others that provide specific
services.
Voters passed Proposition 13 in 1978
because homeowner costs and property
taxes were going through the roof, and as a
result, it has proven to give great certain-
ty to not just small-business owners and
commercial property owners, but to home-
owners across the state. There remains an
aggressive effort by labor unions to try to
poke holes through or completely elimi-
nate Prop. 13 protections on commercial
property, claiming that businesses’ prop-
erty taxes aren’t high enough. … According
to (California State) Board of Equalization
data, property tax revenues grew from $5
billion in the year following Prop. 13’s ap-
proval to $66 billion in 2017-18, an average
of 6.9 percent annually. In fact, property tax
revenues grew faster than overall growth
in the economy, as measured by personal
income growth at just 6.1 percent during
this same period.
For those who claim our schools
aren’t getting enough money from prop-
erty taxes — when right now 40 percent
of the state budget through Prop. 98 must
be dedicated to education — it’s patently
false for property tax increase proponents
to claim that schools need more money. It’s
more a factor of our politicians spending
the dollars more responsibly, so we are
very aggressively involved in a coalition
called Fight for Prop 13. There’s a general
misunderstanding or false rhetoric that
Prop. 13 is protecting only property taxes
November 2019 | comstocksmag.com
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