Breaking News: For the first time, the Governor has proposed $20 million for direct small business assistance as part of the FY 18-19 budget. The details of how those dollars will be allocated is yet to be determined and the budget won’t be finalized until June. CAMEO has played a significant role in making this come to fruition as has anyone who has met with their legislators in Sacramento and the district. More details to come!
In this Must Know…
- Welcome New Board Member Rani Croager
- Federal Update: Taxes and Technology
- Take Action: Appropriations
- Give Your Org the Gift of Membership: Gift your organization a year of training, advocacy and connections – renew your membership or join!
- Register for the Microlenders Forum on February 13, 2018 in San Francisco.
- The Goodies – This week’s highlight is the Union Bank Cyber Defense Summit for Nonprofits on Thursday, January 18,from 10am-12noon at the Union Bank Building in San Francisco. Send an operations or technology person to learn about keeping your organization safe.
Welcome New Board Member Rani Langer-Croager
At this week’s board meeting, the directors unanimously appointed Rani Langer-Croager to the board. (According to CAMEO by-laws, the board may appoint someone to the board to fulfill an open position. They will be presented as a candidate to be elected by the membership at the next board election.) You may have met Rani at one of the CAMEO events that she’s spoken at – Cooking in the DIY Economy, the New Era Workforce Symposium, or the 2017 Annual Member Meeting. Rani comes to the board with a broad range of experiences and a thoughtful approach.
She co-founded Uptima Business Bootcamp to solve the challenge that non-profit and for-profit higher education institutions have of either being under-resourced as a non-profit or having investors put pressure on growth as a for-profit. Uptima is the first business accelerator structured as a cooperative, where the participants, workers and investors have an opportunity to become owners of the accelerator. This means that entrepreneurs are part of an intentional community that shares in the profits and has a say in how their business accelerator is run. Rani says:
My interest in serving on the CAMEO Board stems from my work and passion about entrepreneurship as a means for creating intergenerational wealth and resilient communities. I have a long history with entrepreneurship.
Federal Update: Taxes and Technology
A lot of analysis is coming out about the tax bill and what it means for you, your organization, and your clients, as well as much movement on technology issues that affect small business.
Taxes
- The good news: the tax reform bill includes sole proprietors as “pass thru” entities, so that they can write off the first 20% of their business income, which will help many of your clients.
- The bad news: The State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction is limited to $10,000 and the mortgage interest deduction is limited to mortgages under $500,000 – both of which hurt blue states like California.
The Tax Policy Center analyzed the Tax Cut and Jobs Act and how it will affect households in different income brackets. In general, higher income households receive larger average tax
cuts as a percentage of after-tax income, with the largest cuts as a share of income going to taxpayers
in the 95th to 99th percentiles of the income distribution. On average, in 2027 taxes would change little
for lower- and middle-income groups and decrease for higher-income groups. Compared to current law,
5 percent of taxpayers would pay more tax in 2018, 9 percent in 2025, and 53 percent in 2027. The key question is: how will this affect the budget and the things that taxes pay for like roads, public education, and other services?
Read a summary of how the tax reform bill will affect freelancers – then pass it on to your clients.
The National Council of Nonprofits is hosting a free webinar today, Thursday, January 11, 2018 at 12:00pm (Pacific) to provide a national perspective on the new tax law and what it will mean for nonprofits around the country: “Now What: How the New Federal Tax Law Impacts Charitable Nonprofits.”
Technology
It’s been a busy week for the fight for Net Neutrality. On January 7, the FCC released of the final text of it order to kill net neutrality. That starts the clock for the order to be entered into the Federal Register. Once that happens, there are 60 legislative days to get Congress to reverse it using the Congressional Review Act (CRA). Then on January, Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) announced that he has the 30 votes needed to force a vote to reverse the FCC’s repeal decision using a CRA. Then on January 10, Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) expressed support for plans to contest the net neutrality repeal order. Additionally, in December, a coalition of U.S. attorneys general announced plans to fight it out in court.
Also this week, President Trump signed an Executive Order that declares the executive branch will “use all viable tools” to accelerate the deployment and adoption of reliable and affordable broadband in rural America. The order instructs the Administrator of GSA to coordinate with heads of Federal property managing agencies to streamline and expedite the processing and review of requests to locate broadband facilities on property owned by the Federal Government. This action must happen within 180 days.
Take Action: Appropriations
The federal government is operating under a continuing resolution (CR) for FY 2018 (started in October) until January 19. That means appropriations are steady at FY 2017 levels.
Download our Appropriations Request for FY 2018, then call your congresspeople.
- Find your Congressmember and input your nonprofit’s (or your) zip code in the upper right corner.
- contact Senator Dianne Feinstein and Senator Kamala Harris.
The Goodies
New opportunities for training, conference information, funding, scholarships, and other information that have crossed our desks since the last Must Know. I have posted a running tab of current Industry Goodies on the CAMEO website that lists items that were in past emails. Check it out to make sure you’re not missing anything, like grants whose deadlines are still alive!
Member Kudos: Congratulations to our colleague Liz Perez, who was named Deputy Secretary of Minority Veterans by Governor Brown. She will lead CalVet’s Minority and Underrepresented Veterans Division, which advocates on behalf of minority and LGBT veteran communities, seeks to identify and address gaps in service, and supports activities that address the unique needs of these veterans.
Member News: The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco has announced that Jim Yacenda, Vice President and Community Investment Officer, will retire effective February 2, 2018, and has named Vice President Marietta Núñez his successor as Community Investment Officer. Marietta oversees the AHEAD program, which CAMEO has been awarded three times.
Moving Main Street Forward: AEO’s microbusiness and microfinance conference is a must-attend event for professionals providing capital, technical assistance and other forms of trusted guidance to Main Street and microbusiness owners. The agenda will be packed with inspiring keynotes, thought-provoking plenaries and compelling breakout sessions designed to engage attendees in bold and provocative conversations on using inclusion, innovation and investment to move Main Streets across the country forward. Register at the Early Bird rate of $350 by January 15, 2018!
For Your Clients: The Specialty Food Association is offering your clients a 25% discount to attend its educational workshop, The Basics, being held at the Mission Bay Conference Center prior to the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco on January 20, 2018, 8:00am-5:00pm. The Basics offers actionable insights on the specialty food industry through sharing valuable business advice from successful industry veterans. It’s a must-attend event for anyone who is learning about the specialty food business, new to Fancy Food Shows, or looking for some fresh insights to enhance their success in the industry. With this offer, the price for The Basics is reduced from $199 to just $149. Offer good for CAMEO members and their clients only. Contact us to get the code for your clients.
Professional Conference: Registration for the 2018 CDFI Institute is open. The 2018 Institute will take place on February 28 and March 1 at the Renaissance Hotel, located at 999 9th Street NW in Washington, D.C.
New Report: The Federal Reserve’s Small Business Credit Survey released “Report on Rural Employer Firms” while we were on holiday. Highlights include: Firms in rural areas are more stable and face less financing constraints; and small banks play a bigger role in rural areas.
New Resource: The SBA’s SF District Office has launched a slack channel – The Business Support Network – that you are invited to join. Feel free to announce events and voice questions about where to send clients, how to handle specific types of businesses, find funding (for clients or yourselves), shape programming to serve business owners, and more.