(August 30, 2010) In the final days of session the California Chamber of Commerce is drawing attention to the “job killer” and “job creator” bills that are still moving.
Job Killer Bills
These bills have been designated as “job killers” because they will likely result in a loss of jobs in the state, a deterrent to hiring new employees or growing business in the state or a disincentive to locate new jobs in California.
The next stop for these proposals will be consideration by either the entire Senate or the entire Assembly.
AB 479 (Chesbro; D-North Coast) Expanded Waste Bureaucracy — Exposes employers to new requirements that may be unworkable or not cost effective by giving government broad new authority to impose programs that achieve a statewide solid waste diversion rate of 75 percent by 2020.
AB 482 (Mendoza; D-Norwalk) Expanded Employer Liability — Increases exposure to liability for hiring decisions by unduly restricting the ability of employers to base employment decisions on the evaluation of all legally available information, including consumer credit reports.
AB 656 (Torrico; D-Fremont) Gas Price Increase — Increases gas prices and dependence on foreign oil by targeting the oil industry for a tax on only oil extracted in California, in addition to other taxes not levied in other states.
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 1511 (De León; D-Los Angeles) Tax Increases for California Employers — Increases taxes for California employers and delays the state's economic recovery by repealing the NOL carryback deduction, making the single sales factor apportionment formula mandatory, and extending the suspension of the NOL carryforward deduction and unitary credit sharing.
AB 1604 (Nava; D-Santa Barbara) Gas Price Increase — Increases gas prices and dependence on foreign oil by targeting the oil industry for a tax on only oil extracted in California, in addition to other taxes not levied in other states.
AB 1836 (Furutani; D-South Los Angeles County) Increased Tax Burden — Harms small businesses, many of whom pay taxes under the personal income tax system, by imposing another temporary personal income tax increase on top of the existing personal income tax increase that was passed in last year’s budget.
AB 1935 (De León; D-Los Angeles) Discourages Business Growth in California — Raises taxes for many companies with significant investments of property and payroll in California by making the single sales factor apportionment method mandatory.
AB 2100 (Coto; D-San Jose) Targeted Tax Increase/Flawed Budget Philosophy — Threatens jobs in beverage, retail and restaurant industries by arbitrarily and unfairly targeting certain beverages for a new tax in order to fund obesity-prevention programs and services.
AB 2492 (Ammiano; D-San Francisco) Higher Employer Property Taxes — Undermines Proposition 13 protections and could result in higher property taxes for small businesses by creating an arbitrary and unfair standard for determining that a business property has changed ownership and needs to be reassessed.
AB 2578 (Jones; D-Sacramento) Inappropriate Price Control — Reduces health care choices, access and quality by creating additional bureaucracy to impose price controls on health insurance policies while failing to address the major cost drivers of rising medical costs.
AB 2773 (Swanson; D-Alameda) Undermines Judicial Discretion — Unreasonably increases business litigation costs by removing judicial discretion to reduce or eliminate exorbitant legal fees in Fair Employment and Housing cases.
ABX6 1 (Nava; D-Santa Barbara) Gas Price Increase — Increases gas prices and dependence on foreign oil by targeting the oil industry for a tax on only oil extracted in California, in addition to other taxes not levied in other states.
ACA 6 (C. Calderon; D-Montebello) Discourages Investments — Discourages investments in jobs and operations by imposing an automatic sunset of seven years on any new or extended tax credit, exemption, or deduction.
ACA 22 (Torlakson; D-Contra Costa) Targeted Tax Increase/Flawed Budget Philosophy — Exacerbates state budget problems and harms tobacco industry by unfairly targeting it for a new cigarette tax, a declining revenue source, to fund new government spending programs.
SB 810 (Leno; D-San Francisco) Government-Run Health Care — Creates a new government-run, multibillion-dollar socialized health care system supported by an unspecified "premium structure" that would conflict with recently enacted federal health care reform.
SB 967 (Correa; D-Santa Ana) Restricts Business Options — Limits choice and drives up prices for consumers and for state and local government by providing a preference to bidders who commit that 90 percent of the work will be performed by California employees.
SB 974 (Steinberg; D-Sacramento) Undermines Economic Development — Threatens California’s economy and economic recovery by effectively gutting the California Enterprise Zone program hiring tax credit and in turn increasing employer taxes in order to fund a new education tax credit.
SB 1210 (Florez; D-Shafter) Targeted Tax Increase/Flawed Budget Philosophy — Threatens jobs in beverage, retail, and restaurant industries by arbitrarily and unfairly targeting certain beverages for a new tax in order to fund obesity-prevention programs and services.
SB 1275 (Leno; D-San Francisco) Delays Residential Construction Industry Recovery — Hinders recovery of the residential construction industry by reducing the availability of credit due to delays in resolving delinquent loans by requiring lenders to determine a borrower’s eligibility for a loan modification prior to the filing of a notice of default.
SB 1316 (Romero; D-East Los Angeles) Employer Tax Increase — Places California out of step with federal law and creates a disincentive for multi-state companies to invest in California by making it the only state to impose a tax liability when a company needs flexibility to exchange a California property with one owned in another state.
SB 1391 (Yee; D-San Francisco) Creates Employer Tax Credit Uncertainty — Eliminates the incentive effect of future-enacted tax incentives by requiring employers to repay the state for incentives claimed in years where their businesses experience a net loss of employees, whether or not the reduction of employees was connected to the effectiveness of the incentive.
SBX6 18 (Steinberg; D-Sacramento) Discourages Business Growth in California — Raises taxes for many out of state companies that have significant investments of property and payroll in California by making the single sales factor apportionment method mandatory.
Job Creator Bills
These bills have been designated as “job creators” because they will likely result in a gain of jobs in the state, an incentive to hiring new employees or growing business in the state, or an incentive to locate new jobs in California.
The next stop for these proposals will be consideration by either the entire Senate or the entire Assembly.
AB 1805 (C. Calderon; D-Montebello) Increases Construction Jobs — Facilitates job creation by giving a limited number of environmentally sound development projects protection from CEQA lawsuits. This benefit will allow projects that have met their CEQA requirements to break ground sooner which will create badly needed jobs and spur economic growth.
AB 2098 (Miller; R-Corona) Increased Construction Jobs — Authorizes Riverside County Transportation Commission to use design-build to construct a portion of State Highway 91, thus putting more jobs on the ground more quickly.
SB 388 (C. Calderon; D-Montebello) Supports Construction of Vital Projects — Encourages job growth and support for renewable energy integration by authorizing priority reserve emission reduction credits vital for the construction of a power plant within the South Coast Air Basin.
SB 1010 (Correa; D-Santa Ana) Increases Construction Jobs — Facilitates job creation by giving a limited number of environmentally sound development projects protection from CEQA lawsuits. This benefit will allow projects that have met their CEQA requirements to break ground sooner which will create badly needed jobs and spur economic growth.
SB 1192 (Oropeza; D-Long Beach) Increases Construction Jobs — Creates construction jobs building travel infrastructure and creates a better travel environment for state business and tourism.
SBX6 6 (Hollingsworth; R-Murrieta) Removes Onerous Tax Burden — Relieves employers of an onerous, costly tax burden by prospectively repealing an unfair, strict liability tax penalty that applies even to reasonable tax disputes, that was enacted as part of the September 2008 budget.
Action Needed
The CalChamber is urging members of the business community to contact their legislators and ask them to oppose these “job killers” and to support these “job creator” bills.
Sample letters are available at www.calchambervotes.com.
Staff Contact: Marc Burgat