Newsom Meets With San Fernando Small Business Owners, Signs $6.2B Tax Relief Measure
SAN FERNANDO (CBSLA) — Gov. Gavin Newsom Thursday met with San Fernando business owners who have been hit hard through the COVID-19 pandemic before signing legislation that will provide $6.2 bill in tax cuts for small businesses over the next six years.
Newsom visited multiple small businesses before ending up at a sushi restaurant in the city of San Fernando where he spoke about the tax relief plan.
Under the legislation, AB 80, forgiven Paycheck Protection Program loans received by businesses from the federal government will not be considered taxable income. Businesses will also be able to deduct the expenses the loans were used for.
"Help is on the way in the form of a $6.2 billion tax cut, which will provide support, not to large publicly traded companies, but to the mom-and-pop businesses -- the beauty salons, restaurants and dental offices -- which have been resilient during this difficult time," Newsom said. "This small business tax relief is exactly what is needed to keep businesses open so they can continue paying their employees."
Newsom was joined by other local elected and community officials, including actor and business owner Danny Trejo and state Senate Majority Leader Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys.
"Here in our own San Fernando Valley and across the state, small business is, in many ways, the soul of this state," Hertzberg said. "It represents the hopes and dreams and sweat and toil that forms the foundation of our California Dream. Today, with this new law, passed on a bipartisan basis, we are taking another step closer to repairing some of the damages caused by this overwhelming global pandemic."
Newsom also answered questions about a Newport Beach-based effort to recall him after it reached the necessary 1.8 million signatures.
"We're going to defeat the recall," he said. "We're going to focus on getting people back to work. We're going to focus on people getting back fully to in-person instruction in our schools We're going to get this economy moving again and more important than anything else, we're going to get vaccines in peoples' arms so we can do all of that faster. And that's the answer to that question, "What I'm doing to address that issue?' that's exactly what I'm doing every day, 24/7. Focusing on vaccines, focusing on supporting small businesses."
The governor also said the state does plan to fully reopen on June 15, saying that the vaccination rate is outpacing his ambitions, while also saying we cannot take our eye off the ball.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
