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A New Labor Package Poses Implications for Small Business
A new labor reform package introduced in the Senate could reshape workforce dynamics for small businesses, with changes spanning union-election rules, unfair-labor-practice filings, and corporate transparency.
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Government Shutdowns always harm small businesses
The House vote followed Senate approval on Sunday, when eight Democratic senators broke with party leadership and joined Republicans to advance the agreement after several weeks of negotiation. In the House, six Democrats voted with all but two Republicans to pass the bill.
“NSBA thanks lawmakers for finally ending the impasse,” stated NSBA President and CEO Todd McCracken. “For 43 days, we have faced uncertainty that plagued small businesses waiting for an SBA loan, trying to get a government contract, trying to get paid for work they’d already done or worrying how to pay employees.”
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Senator to push new bathroom gender restrictions to voters
John Kavanagh told Capitol Media Services he wants to go directly to voters to ask them to approve legislation that spells out that students in public and charter schools can use only the bathroom that matches the gender they were assigned at birth. The same rule would also apply to locker rooms and showers.
And students on field trips would also only be able to share rooms with those whose “biological sex as determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of the person’s birth.”
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U.S. Chamber Applauds Tariff Reductions
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce welcomed the administration's decision to lift tariffs on certain agricultural products not produced domestically, such as coffee, bananas, and beef.
These tariffs had led to higher costs for businesses and families, with millions of dollars collected in additional taxes. The rollback is expected to reduce prices and ease financial burdens on American consumers.
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Tariffs spell disaster for Arizona small businesses
According to a CNBC study, Arizona ranks among the top five state economies. Our 678,000 small businesses are a big reason why this achievement is possible. But this year is different – new tariffs have us all wondering whether our economic growth will stall.
Consider that nearly nine in 10 businesses that import products by sea have fewer than 50 employees. Translation? Tariffs disproportionately hurt small businesses, the backbone of the economy. They are essentially a tax we pay upfront — forcing us to either absorb the hit ourselves or raise prices on consumers. That’s a hard choice given the need to maintain customer loyalty and compete with other businesses.
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Water Infrastructure Finance Authority to consider five proposals to shore up Arizona’s water supply
The board overseeing the state agency charged with finding new water supplies for Arizona is poised to approve as many as five water importation proposals, one of which could reignite decades of interstate controversy.
A conservation group and an Indian tribe warned the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority committee screening the projects that EPCOR’s apparent proposal is fraught with risk and can’t deliver the stable water supply Arizona needs.
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Desalination Projects Move Forward
The Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona received 17 proposals for public-private partnerships and advanced four of them during its November 19 board meeting this week. These include plans to construct desalination facilities on the California coast or in the Gulf of California, aiming to generate water that could be exchanged for Colorado River water allocations. Additional proposals moving forward involve investments to improve agricultural efficiency in upstream Colorado River states and participation in Northern California underground water storage initiatives, both of which could also facilitate trades for Colorado River water.
The partnerships could provide hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of water annually, matching current Colorado River levels in the state. The state authority will decide how feasible these projects are elsewhere and if they warrant the approved funding.
Arizona Climbs the New Business Ladder
A new nationwide study using the U.S. Census Bureau data ranks Arizona 24th in the nation for launching new businesses, recording 1,275 business applications per 100,000 residents in 2024. This positions the state as a moderate player in the national entrepreneurial boom. The report suggests that for Arizona to see numbers rise faster, it must address issues like local policy and regulation, indicating that current budget revenue growth could be significantly accelerated through policy improvements.
Arizona court blocks proposed utility rate pricing process
The state Court of Appeals has thrown a hurdle into the Arizona Corporation Commission’s efforts to expedite rate hike requests.
In a unanimous decision, the judges said the Residential Utility Consumer Office should be given the chance to prove that the process for reviewing rate increases adopted by the all-Republican commission last year is a formal rule.
What makes that important is that the three-judge panel refused to accept the commissioners’ argument that what they had done was a mere change in policy — something they were free to do without the extensive hearings and public input required for a new rule.
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Arizona minimum wage set to rise to $15.15 an hour in January
- Arizona’s minimum wage will rise to $15.15 an hour on January 1
- The increase is due to annual adjustments for inflation, as required by state laws
- Arizona’s inflation rate through August hit 2.9%, the highest since 2021
Arizona will soon require workers to be paid at least $15.15 an hour.
New figures Thursday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that year-over-year inflation through August hit 2.9%.
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