(June 14, 2010) Strong opposition from the California Chamber of Commerce and other business groups has stopped a number of “job killer” bills from advancing beyond the legislative house in which they were introduced.

The following “job killer” proposals are dead for this year.

Costly Workplace Mandates

• AB 1994 (Skinner; D-Berkeley) Increased Workers’ Compensation Costs. Would have inappropriately increased costs to employers by expanding workers’ compensation presumptions into the private sector for the first time by allowing hospital workers to be eligible for various presumptions, including H1N1, MRSA, and other diseases and injuries.
• AB 2727 (Bradford; D-Gardena) New Liability for Hiring Decisions. Would have increased potential liability exposure for hiring decisions by restricting the ability of employers to make their decision based on a job applicant’s criminal conviction.

Economic Development Barriers

• AB 1639 (Nava; D-Santa Barbara) Delays Residential Construction Industry Recovery. Would have hindered recovery of the residential construction industry by reducing credit availability due to the imposition of a mandatory mortgage mediation program, which would have led to increased delays in resolving delinquent loans.
• AB 2171 (C. Calderon; D-Montebello) Discourages Investments. Would have created substantial uncertainty for employers and discouraged future investment in the state by effectively creating an annual sunset for all investment incentives, including tax credits, deductions and exemptions, and capping how much can be claimed each year.
• AB 2641 (Arambula; I-Fresno) Discourages Investments. Would have created uncertainty for California employers making long-term investment decisions by requiring all future-enacted investment incentives to sunset after five years, and eliminating existing incentives that provide no “measurable benefit” without defining how that benefit would be measured.
• SB 1113 (Wolk; D-Davis) Undermines Taxpayer Rights. Would have made it more costly and difficult for taxpayers to fight meritorious disputes and given the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) the upper hand by allowing FTB to request a new court trial of tax cases it loses at the administrative level.

Expensive, Unnecessary Regulatory Burdens

• AB 2138 (Chesbro; D-North Coast) Unworkable Mandate. Would have imposed new and costly mandates on California’s food service industry by imposing an unworkable framework aimed at reducing marine debris.

Staff Contact: Marc Burgat