Assembly
Speaker John Perez assured attendees at California’s Small Business Day that he
was confident the legislature would meet it’s constitutional deadline to pass a
budget by June 15. Perez’s optimistic message was wrapped around a concern for
California’s fiscal woes. However, he did not get into the partisan bickering
that has gridlocked the budget debate.
The speaker
did acknowledge the state’s unemployment problem saying the legislature’s principle
task was to create jobs. He pointed to some tax credit legislation as proof of
that effort.
The speaker
said the recession has laid bare flaws in California’s economic system but did
not offer specific remedies. He simply said now was the moment to protect
California’s legacy of entrepreneurship that goes back to the Gold Rush days.
The only
advice he offered to solve the state’s woes was to paraphrase a statement from
former President Clinton: there is nothing wrong with California that cannot be
fixed with what is right about California.
Small
Business Day made its annual appearance at the state Capitol yesterday with a
large audience of hundreds of small business owners and 75 legislators honoring
and recognizing the value of small business.
The state’s
small business advocate, Marty Keller, also hit a positive note pointing to
declarations from President Obama and legislation by Senate president pro tem,
Darrell Steinberg, to deal with regulatory burdens on small business. Keller
said in his position as business advocate, the complaint he hears most often is
that business suffers "the death of a thousand paper cuts" from the
imposition of regulations.
Reducing the
regulatory burden is also the focus of Winslow Sargeant, chief counsel for advocacy,
in the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy set up as an
independent voice for small business within the federal government.
Sargeant said
that a study showed that the challenge of complying with federal regulations
was much tougher on small business that large business.
Small
business makes up an extremely important part of the California economy.
According to Sargeant, the state has 3.5 million small businesses which
employee 56-percent of private sector employees.
It is all connected:
Freeing up the state’s small business from many regulatory burdens will put
California on the road to more job creation and, in turn, bring in more revenue
to help solve the budget problem.