Colorado Director Lindsey Vigoda and small business owner Alejandro Flores-Muñoz provided testimony on April 13 in support of SB 21-199, which will remove barriers to access certain public opportunities for undocumented entrepreneurs and support the immigrant small business community in Colorado.
Policy Statements
Colorado Director Lindsey Vigoda and small business owners Sarita Parikh, Sandra J. Payne and Jeff Rogoff will provide testimony on April 9 in support of HB 21-1232, which would establish the Colorado Health Insurance Option. The legislation is set to provide a lifesaving alternative for Colorado small business owners who are struggling to keep up with the increasing cost of healthcare.
Today, Small Business Majority, Main Street Alliance, and 114 state, local, and federal business organizations sent a letter to Congress urging them to pass a substantive grants program to support small businesses. While federal relief programs provided a crucial lifeline for many businesses, small businesses need unrestricted funding because only they can determine how to best utilize funding to keep their businesses open.
A year into the pandemic, many small businesses in Illinois continue to struggle to keep their doors open. While government funding programs have provided a crucial lifeline for many businesses, one-off funding opportunities are not going to be enough to support the long-term recovery of our small business economy. The proposed Illinois Earned Income Credit (EIC) expansion would help address this by closing the gaps in federal funding relief programs and putting more money into the pockets of low-income and working-class Illinoisans.
Small Business Majority joined the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, Health Access California and Purchaser Business Group on Health (PBGH) in their support of the Office of Health Care Affordability, which would set enforceable targets for health care costs across the full spectrum of health care costs.
Small Business Majority submitted a letter to the California Assembly Health Committee Chairman Jim Wood in support of AB 1132, which will discourage anticompetitive behaviors in the healthcare industry. This bill will strengthen oversight over hospital mergers and consolidation by the Attorney General, a key measure to control healthcare costs and affordability for small business owners.
Small Business Majority network member Stacey Carpenter, Owner of Barnyard Buddies Family Childcare, testified before the Colorado House Public & Behavioral Health and Human Services Committee in support of HB 21-1222, which would require all family child care homes (FCCH) to be classified as residences for purposes of licensure and local regulations, including zoning, land use development, fire and life safety, and building codes.
Small Business Majority wrote to the Colorado Senate House Health & Insurance Committee in support of HB 21-1232, which would establish a standardized health insurance option, thus offering more accessible and affordable health coverage for small businesses.
On March 17, Small Business Majority submitted a letter to the Senate Health & Human Services Committee in support of the proposed prescription drug affordability board in Colorado, which would help lower the cost of drug prescriptions for small business owners and enable wider access to life-saving medication.
Colorado Director Lindsey Vigoda testified to the Colorado House Business Affairs & Labor Committee in support of House Bill 21-1167, which would cap retainage for all public and private entities at 5% and allow small construction and subcontract firms to be more competitive against larger firms.