The Keep California Working Act garnered more momentum in the Legislature with new co-authors announcing their support for the bill within the last week. With the new additions, a total of thirty-seven legislators are now supporting the measure. This milestone signifies an opportunity for the Legislature to work together on small business relief efforts.
The Keep California Working Act, otherwise known as Senate Bill 74, is a bipartisan small business relief package spearheaded by Senators Andreas Borgeas (R-Fresno) and Anna Caballero (D-Salinas), and Assembly Member Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Laguna Beach). The bill invests $2.6 billion (or 10% of California’s projected windfall) in grants for small businesses and non-profits impacted by COVID-19.
California Legislators Urge Governor to Reclassify Restaurants as ‘Essential’
Eleven bipartisan members of the California State Senate have sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, urging him to reclassify restaurants as “essential businesses” and allow them to reopen safely.
The letter, sent Dec. 11, calls the guidelines implemented by Newsom’s administration “devastating” for restaurants, the jobs they provide, and the revenue they bring in for communities.
“We urge you in the strongest terms to reclassify restaurants as essential businesses, and adopt the industry’s protocols that would allow restaurants to operate safely,” the letter states. “The future of thousands of restaurants, their employees and the unique character of our local communities are dependent on the survival of this industry.”
California State Senator Andreas Borgeas Named Chair of Senate Agriculture Committee goldrushcam.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from goldrushcam.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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An indispensable tool of good legislating is face-to-face dickering. That hasn’t been happening. One result was that the Legislature adjourned for the year in August amid excessive feuding between the two houses, especially among the leaders.
“The process is screwed up,” Assemblyman Adam Gray (D-Merced) says. “It’s difficult to navigate through this. It’s hard to organize the committees. They’re not as transparent and public as they should be.”
Gray introduced a bill, AB 62, that would allow small businesses and those deemed essential such as healthcare facilities, emergency services and food processing to take a dollar-for-dollar tax credit on virus-protection expenses required by the state. Covered would be such things as employee testing, masks, ventilation systems and plexiglass barriers.
Legislators return with new bills to help Californians hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic [Los Angeles Times]
Like little flowers emerging from a charred landscape, some promising pandemic relief bills are sprouting in a California Legislature devastated by COVID-19.
They’ve scarcely been noticed in the fixation over President Trump’s immoral, undemocratic attempt to overturn the voters’ election of Joe Biden and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s French Laundry dining and unemployment benefit debacles.
Newsom, however, made a smart move last week in an attempt to right his foundering governorship. He recruited the politically savvy Dee Dee Myers to be a senior advisor and head his agency GO-Biz that’s supposed to help expand California business.