(May 27, 2008) In recent weeks, the Assembly and Senate Appropriations committees have referred a number of California Chamber of Commerce “job killer” bills to the suspense file, pending a review of the proposals’ fiscal impacts.
The CalChamber will be urging legislators not to move these bad ideas forward and asks CalChamber members to do the same.
The committees are likely to consider these bills on Thursday, May 28.
In Assembly Appropriations
AB 2 (De La Torre; D-South Gate) Health Insurance Litigation.
Drives up the cost of health care premiums and increases the number of uninsured by establishing litigation as the only meaningful approach to resolving disputes over rescinding coverage.
AB 212 (Saldaña; D-San Diego) Construction Costs Increase.
Substantially increases the cost of new housing by mandating on-site or near-site energy generation for all new residential buildings.
AB 231 (Huffman; D-San Rafael)/ AB 1405 (De León; D-Los Angeles) Climate Change Tax Increase.
Increases costs and discourages job growth by granting the Air Resources Board broad authority to implement unlimited fees and taxes with little or no oversight.
AB 283 (Chesbro; D-Arcata) Expanded Waste Bureaucracy.
Leads to increased cost for consumers and businesses by requiring producers of select products sold in California to collect their products after use by the consumer and manage the recycling and/or disposal of those products.
AB 479 (Chesbro; D-Arcata) Expanded Waste Bureaucracy.
Increases costs by giving the California Integrated Waste Management Board broad authority to impose any policy, program or incentive to reach a 75 percent solid waste diversion rate by 2020.
AB 664 (Skinner; D-Berkeley) Increased Workers’ Compensation Costs.
Increases workers’ compensation costs by creating a legal presumption that neck and back injuries, and blood-borne and specific infections suffered by hospital employees are related to employment.
AB 842 (Swanson; D-Oakland) Hurts Struggling Businesses.
Expands mandates and increases liability for employers related to the state version of the federal Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act of 1988.
AB 1000 (Ma; D-San Francisco) Paid Sick Days.
Unreasonably expands employers’ costs and liability for a new protected and paid sick leave for employees.
AB 1404 (De León; D-Los Angeles) Discourages Emission Reductions.
Significantly increases business costs and threatens state jobs and businesses by severely limiting the amount of offsets California industries can use to meet their greenhouse gas emission goals.
AB 1421 (Swanson; D-Oakland) Pay for Commuting.
Imposes new costs on employers that provide transportation to the worksite by requiring them to pay employees for time spent commuting from the parking lot to the workstation.
In Senate Appropriations
SB 95 (Corbett; D-San Leandro) Vehicle Price Increase.
Imposes new surety costs on car dealers in an already-difficult economy by placing excessive restrictions on the sale of trade-in vehicles and eliminating a voluntary consumer mediation program.
SB 601, SB 602, SB 603 (Padilla; D-Pacoima) Retail Restrictions.
Severely restricts retailers from growing their businesses in California by limiting the sale of a legal product in a legal venue.
SB 810 (Leno; D-San Francisco) Government-Run Health Care.
Creates a new government-run, multibillion-dollar socialized health care system based on a yet-to-be specified “premium structure”—in essence, a tax on all employers.
Action Needed
Contact your legislators and members of Assembly and Senate Appropriations. Urge them to oppose these “job killer” bills and keep them on the suspense file.
For sample letters, visit www.calchambervotes.com.
Staff Contact: Marc Burgat