Small Business Support & Empowerment

Streamline permitting, create business disruption assistance, maintain a microgrant fund, expand language access, activate vacant storefronts, prioritize local vendors, and support worker-owned businesses.

HB 433 and SB 742 block contractor wage and local-hire mandates, while city grant and storefront tools overlap with programs the city and CRA already run.

This plank is strongest where it focuses on service delivery: faster permits, technical assistance, small grants, and storefront activation. The more coercive labor conditions are the part the city cannot safely enforce.

HB 433 / SB 742 — Local wage and hiring mandate preemption

State law limits local governments from imposing independent wage floors and certain local-hiring conditions on contractors.

She filed a state Business Disruption Assistance Act, but it did not pass.

Publish permit service levels, expand the existing small-business assistance baseline, support storefront activation through CRA tools, and keep wage standards voluntary.