2006 'Job Killer' Bill List

CalChamber Efforts Help Keep Lid on 'Job Killers'

California's economy will benefit from the California Chamber's 95 percent success rate in stopping the 2006 " job killer" bills.

Strong opposition from the CalChamber, in conjunction with the business community, job-friendly legislators and action by the Governor, prevented numerous harmful measures from becoming law. Following is a recap of the final status of the 2006 "job killer" bills.

Costly Workplace Mandates

AB 1884 (Chu; D-Monterey Park) Unemployment Insurance Compensation Benefits — Increases the cost of doing business in California by forcing California employers to subsidize a strike against their own company by providing unemployment insurance benefits to workers unemployed due to a strike. Vetoed.

AB 2209 (Pavley; D-Agoura Hills) Unemployment Insurance Benefit Expansion — Increases the cost of doing business in California by forcing employers, in essence, to subsidize a strike against their company by creating a new monetary penalty payment — equivalent to all lost wages and benefits — that employers must pay directly to all workers unemployed due to the strike. Vetoed.

SB 300 (Kuehl; D-Santa Monica) Leave Law Abuse — Opens California’s leave law to potential abuse by removing controls that require that the employee actually provides the care, among other provisions. Assembly Appropriations Committee Suspense File.

SB 815 (Perata; D-Oakland) Workers' Compensation Reform Rollback — Rolls back recent workers' compensation reforms by arbitrarily doubling the permanent disability payments over three years without sound data with which to base the increase. Vetoed.

SB 840 (Kuehl; D-Santa Monica) Government-Run Health Care — Imposes a government-run health care system on all Californians. Vetoed.

SB 1414 (Migden; D-San Francisco) Health Care Tax — Imposes a tax on employers with over 10,000 employees to spend the equivalent of 8 percent of their total payroll on health care or pay the equivalent amount to the state. Vetoed. 

AB 1835 (Lieber; D-Mountain View) Government-Mandated Minimum Wage Increase — Increases the cost of doing business by raising the state minimum wage to $7.50 in 2007 and to $8 in 2008, giving California the highest minimum wage rate in the nation. Chapter 230. Amended to remove automatic annual indexing. CalChamber still opposes but no longer lists as a "job killer."

SB 1162 (Cedillo; D-Los Angeles) Automatic Minimum Wage Increases — Originally increased the cost of doing business without regard to the state’s economy by increasing the minimum wage with annual automatic increases. Significantly amended to deal with another subject.

Economic Development Barriers

AB 32 (Núñez; D-Los Angeles/Pavley; D-Agoura Hills) Halts Economic Growth — Increases costs for California businesses, makes them less competitive and discourages economic growth with little or no proven environmental benefit by adopting an arbitrary cap on carbon emissions. Chapter 488.

AB 1101 (Oropeza; D-Long Beach) Ports: Regulatory Complexity — Hampers operations at ports, rail yards and airports by shifting regulatory authority over emissions from state to local entities, creating a patchwork of potentially inconsistent regulations statewide, creating conflicts with federal law. Failed passage in Senate.

AB 1528 (Jones; D-Sacramento) Halts Economic Growth — Halts much-needed housing in undeveloped areas by shifting flood liability from state government to local government, resulting in local governments refusing to issue development permits. Senate Judiciary Committee.

AB 1665 (Laird; D-Santa Cruz) Flood Management — Chills production of much-needed housing in undeveloped areas by shifting flood liability from state government to local government, resulting in local governments refusing to issue development permits. In Assembly.

AB 1899 (Wolk; D-Davis) Halts Economic Growth — Prohibits development in the Central Valley by requiring the creation of a 200-year flood standard that is currently impossible to achieve. Senate Rules Committee.

AB 2202 (Saldaña; D-San Diego) Limits Technology — Originally limited the availability of thousands of consumer electronic devices in California by prohibiting the sale of those devices if they contained certain heavy metals. Amended to remove opposition.

AB 2641 (Coto; D-San Jose) Halts Economic Growth — Former job killer originally would have halted development indefinitely by requiring open-ended consultation and ultimate land use decision by an advocacy commission for Native Americans. Now requires the identified descendants of Native American human remains to make recommendations or preferences for treatment of those remains within 48 hours of being granted access to a Native American burial site. Chapter 863. Amended to remove opposition.

SB 44 (Kehoe; D-San Diego) Affordable Housing Development Impediment — Originally slowed the development process by adding yet another element to be included within general plans and increased opportunities for “anti-growth” litigation. Significantly amended to deal with another subject.

SB 646 (Kuehl; D-Santa Monica) Water Discharge Fee — Jeopardizes jobs and agriculture and timber industry revenues by imposing mandatory annual fees for water discharge waivers with no accountability requirements. Assembly Inactive File.

SB 764 (Lowenthal; D-Long Beach) Ports: Goods Movement Cost Increase — Increases the costs of goods movement and drives business and jobs from California ports by requiring the City of Los Angeles and the City of Long Beach to prohibit any growth at their respective ports unless that growth can be accomplished with no net negative impact on air quality. Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee.

SB 1368 (Perata; D-Oakland) Increases the Cost of Electricity — Limits the available power sources to meet California’s energy demands while substantially increasing the price of electricity to consumers and businesses by establishing an unattainable greenhouse gas emission performance standard. Chapter 598.

SB 1523 (Alarcón; D-San Fernando Valley) Regulatory Hurdles — Stifles economic development by adding an economic impact report prior to the superstore retailer approval process. Vetoed.

Expensive, Unnecessary Regulatory Burdens

AB 457 (Núñez; D-Los Angeles) Disasters: Government Price Controls — Creates burdensome and arbitrary new standards for government price controls to be imposed on numerous industries and opens the door to related unfair competition prosecutions brought at the subjective whim of the Attorney General. Assembly Floor. 

SB 1068 (Escutia; D-Norwalk) Antiquated Regulations —Stifles innovation and limits consumer choices by imposing antiquated regulations developed for monopolistic landline telephone services on rapidly growing and competitive telecommunications industry. Failed in Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee. 

SB 1205 (Escutia; D-Norwalk) Punitive Regulation — Makes California unattractive to business by raising maximum fines for emission violations, creating a new category of violators with no due process for the determination of who is a violator while ignoring that there is no demonstrated connection between penalties and emission rates. Failed passage in Assembly.

SB 1252 (Florez; D-Shafter) Resource Regulation — Penalizes businesses that are in the process of implementing the latest air standards by imposing an additional civil penalty. Failed passage in Assembly.

SB 1379 (Perata; D-Oakland) Biomonitoring — Originally made California unfriendly to business by establishing a biomonitoring program that could generally lead to the elimination or reduction of use of certain chemicals that have not been scientifically proven harmful, based on mere detection. Chapter 599. Amended to remove opposition.

Fuel Price Increases

AB 1012 (Nation; D-San Rafael) Fuel Mandate — Disrupts California’s transportation fuels market by mandating the sale of scarce alternative fuel vehicles and will result in significant gas price spikes. Vetoed.

ACA 36 (Nation; D-San Rafael) Gas Tax Increase — Makes California gasoline, already the most expensive in the nation, even more expensive by imposing a 25-cent increase over five years, none of which will be used for transportation. In Assembly.

SB 1675 (Kehoe; D-San Diego) Increases Gas Prices — Creates market volatility, ignores current operational limitations and supply availability by mandating the use of biodiesel in fuels. Failed passage in Assembly.

Increases Frivolous Lawsuits

AB 581 (Klehs; D-Castro Valley) New Reason to Sue — Makes California less desirable as a place to establish or expand a business by opening new avenues to sue employers by establishing a broad private right of action that permits joint labor management committees to sue any employer for certain Labor Code violations that may have occurred up to four years previously, among other provisions. Held in Senate Appropriations Committee.

SB 109 (Ortiz; D-Sacramento) Excessive Litigation — Increases litigation costs and potential lawsuits by allowing for both civil and criminal penalties for minor air quality violations. Failed passage in Assembly Natural Resources Committee.

SB 1489 (Ducheny; D-San Diego) Government Agency Potential Harassment of Employers — Invites unlimited “fishing expeditions” by the Attorney General under numerous statutes, including the Unruh Civil Rights Act and environmental laws, by making defendant companies pay all the investigation and lawsuit costs, including attorneys’ fees, if the Attorney General “prevails.” The term “prevail” could include settlements, changes in operation by a defendant or even a minuscule monetary award. Vetoed.

Tax and Fee Increases

AB 1177 (Chan; D-Oakland) Tax Increase — Increases the tax burden on small business by increasing the personal income tax rate to 10 and 11 percent and the alternative tax rate to 8.5 percent. Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee.

AB 1766 (Dymally; D-Compton) Tax Increase — Reduces the state’s only remaining economic development tax credit by making it harder for business to qualify for the credit and making it harder for banks to lend to these businesses. Senate Floor. 

AB 2442 (Klehs; D-Castro Valley) Gas Tax Increase — Drives up fuel prices for businesses and consumers by imposing a 2 percent tax on oil companies’ net income in excess of $10 million to fund a reduction in the gasoline sales tax. Assembly Floor.

AB 2829 (Ridley-Thomas; D-Los Angeles) Tax Increase — Increases taxes on multinational companies that do business in California but whose parent company is incorporated overseas. Assembly Floor.

AB 3075 (Klehs; D-Castro Valley) Gas Tax Increase — Drives up fuel prices for businesses and consumers by imposing a 5 percent tax on oil companies' net income in excess of $10 million to fund a reduction in the gasoline sales tax. Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee.

SB 459 (Romero; D-Los Angeles) Goods Movement; Cost Increase — Increases the cost of goods movement and discourages job creation by imposing an air quality mitigation fee on railroad companies that operate in the counties of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino. Assembly Inactive File.

SB 760 (Lowenthal; D-Long Beach) Ports: Goods Movement Cost Increase — Increases the cost of goods movement in California by assessing a $60 fee per container processed through the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports. Similar contents amended into SB 927.

SB 927 (Lowenthal; D-Long Beach) Ports: Goods Movement Consumer Fee — Increases the cost of exporting and importing goods in California by assessing a $60 fee per container processed through the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports. Vetoed.

SB 1008 (Ducheny; D-San Diego) Tax Increase — Reduces the state's only remaining economic development tax credit by making it harder for businesses to qualify for the credit and making it harder for banks to lend to these businesses. Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee.

View detailed list and final status of 2006 "job killers."