(May 18, 2009) The California Chamber of Commerce has released its annual list of “job killer” bills, calling attention to the negative impact the proposed measures would have on California’s competitiveness and job climate if they were to become law.
“There can be no more business as usual in California,” said CalChamber President Allan Zaremberg. “Our unemployment rate now exceeds 11 percent and we rank 6th in the nation as one of the most expensive places to do business. We are feeling the weight of overly burdensome regulations, unique to California, passed by legislators when times were good. Now more than ever, legislators must get serious about doing what is good for California and our workers. Legislators must vote no on every bill that has the potential to drive up costs for consumers and businesses and to harm the economy. The private sector will bring this economy back and legislators must make job creation their top priority. A robust private sector economy will provide our state government with sufficient resources for a quality educational system and the public safety services we deserve.”
CalChamber annually releases its list of “job killer” bills to identify legislation that will harm economic and job growth in California. CalChamber will track the bills throughout the rest of the legislative session and work to educate legislators about the serious consequences these bills will have on the state.
The 2009 “job killer” bill list is also available at: www.calchamber.com/jobkillers.
Barriers to Affordable Housing
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.
Costly Workplace Mandates
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 943 (Mendoza; D-Artesia) Hampers Employment Decisions — Unduly restricts the ability of businesses to use all legally available information in employment decisions, including consumer credit reports.
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 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.
SB 145 (DeSaulnier; D-Concord) Workers’ Compensation Apportionment — Erodes recent workers’ compensation reforms and leads to higher premiums for California employers by undercutting fair and reasonable provisions in current law that protect an employer from paying for disability that was not caused by a workplace accident.
SB 773 (Florez; D-Shafter) Workers’ Compensation Cost Increase — Increases workers’ compensation costs significantly and makes it more expensive to employ Californians by arbitrarily increasing permanent disability benefits.
SB 789 (Steinberg; D-Sacramento) Increased Agricultural Costs — Undermines the process that now guarantees, through secret-ballot elections, a fair vote and the expression of agricultural employees’ true sentiments on the selection of a collective bargaining representative. This act will hurt California’s businesses by driving up costs, making employers less competitive in a global market.
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.
Economic Development Barriers
AB 89 (Torlakson; D-Antioch) 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.
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 656 (Torrico; D-Newark) Gas Price Increase — Increases gas prices and dependence on foreign oil by targeting the oil industry for a tax on oil extracted only in California.
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.
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-Antioch) 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 96 (Ducheny; D-San Diego) Increased Tax Burden — Imposes a new tax increase on personal income.
SB 600 (Padilla; D-Pacoima) 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.
Expensive, Unnecessary, Unnecessary Regulatory Burdens
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% solid waste diversion rate by 2020.
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.
Inflated Liability Costs
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 793 (Jones; D-Sacramento) Unreasonable New Liability for Employers — Imposes unfair and costly litigation burden on California employers by unreasonably expanding employer liability in workplace lawsuits far beyond the federal Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.
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.