Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Wednesday two bills designed to help small businesses weather the economic storm of the coronavirus pandemic.
Senate Bill 1477 gives small businesses a tax credit of $1,000 for each new employee hired before Dec. 1 of this year. The credit applies to businesses with 100 employees or fewer that have lost at least half of their revenue between April and June this year, compared to the same time period last year. New hires must be employees, not contractors.
"Small businesses play a huge role in (my) district," said state Sen. Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, one of the bill's co-authors. "Many of the small businesses are minority owned — and just as importantly, immigrant owned."
Assembly Bill 1577 allows forgiven loans from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to be excluded as income. The PPP, which ended in early August, was a federal program designed to encourage small businesses to keep their workers on the payroll during the pandemic.
“Every small business is not just about dollars and cents,” Newsom said during a press conference at Solomon’s Delicatessen in Sacramento. “It's about dreams. It's about people coming together. ... It's about the character of our neighborhoods.”