Small Business Loses Some Clout in Sacramento : Legislature: Owners of small firms lament the loss of Senate and Assembly select committees, which fell victim to budget cuts forced by Proposition 140.

California’s small-business owners may have a tougher time being heard in Sacramento after the demise last week of the legislative subcommittees serving small-business interests. Both the Senate and Assembly small-business select committees fell victim to budget cuts forced by the passage of Proposition 140.

Proposition 140, sponsored by Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum, calls for the cuts of up to 48% in the Assembly and Senate’s $219-million operating budget. The small-business subcommittees and their staffers were among the first to feel the ax when their offices closed Jan. 31.

Critics say legislators create select subcommittees mostly to placate special interests such as wineries, movie makers and mobile home park owners. But members of the small-business committee advisory boards said their committees and staff members dealt with significant issues such as state-mandated health insurance.

“Now we have no voice speaking up for small business in Sacramento,” said Maxine Weinman, owner of Maxine’s Seafood Cafe in Hollywood and a member of the Senate and Assembly small-business advisory boards. “I feel it’s a tremendous loss.”

On the Senate side, it is unclear how small-business owners will express their views since Sen. David A. Roberti’s small-business subcommittee was disbanded last week. Sources in Sacramento said Roberti (D-Los Angeles) who serves as president pro tem, shut down his small-business subcommittee to set a cost-cutting example for his colleagues.

“We are looking for a way to preserve the small-business advisory board and its functions,” said Mel Assagai, Roberti’s chief assistant. “But it’s not certain that we can.”

On the Assembly side, small-business issues will now be handled by the existing, but newly renamed Consumer Protection, Governmental Efficiency and Economic Development Committee, according to a spokesman for Assemblywoman Jackie Speier (D-South San Francisco).

Gene Penne, chairman of the California Chamber of Commerce Small Business Committee, said the chamber is creating a grass roots action committee to boost small-business participation in Sacramento. Within 60 days, the chamber hopes to have representatives keeping an eye on small-business issues in all 80 state Assembly districts, Penne said.

“Maybe we (the chamber) can pick up some of the slack or the fallout from not having specific legislative committees,” he said.