(October 2, 2008) The California Chamber of Commerce yesterday announced that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed nine of the ten “job killer” bills sent to his desk for action by the Legislature. 

“Governor Schwarzenegger used his veto pen to protect jobs and our state’s business climate,” said CalChamber President and CEO Allan Zaremberg. “If these ‘job killers’ had been signed into law, our state’s employers would have faced more regulation and higher costs that would further threaten their competitiveness and the state’s long term economic health.”    

Since taking office Governor Schwarzenegger has vetoed more than 90 percent of the “job killer” bills that have been sent to his desk.

Below is a summary of CalChamber identified “job killer” bills that Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed in 2008:

Inflated Liability Costs

AB 437 (Jones; D-Sacramento) Increased Employer Liability Exposure.
Could have resulted in significant new liability exposure for employers by stating that the Legislature rejects, for purposes of any California statutes of limitation, a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that provided clear limits on statutes of limitation for lawsuits relating to employer decisions.

SB 1113 (Migden; D-San Francisco) Incentive to Sue.
Would have expanded rewards to plaintiffs for costs of litigation stemming from private attorney general actions while providing no cost recovery for those who must defend themselves against such actions, even if those actions are found to be baseless.

Costly Workplace Mandates

AB 2279 (Leno; D-San Francisco) Employee Safety Risk.
Would have compromised employee safety and employers’ right to maintain drug-free workplace policies and exposed employers to potential litigation by prohibiting employers from refusing to hire applicants or fire current workers because they use medical marijuana.

AB 2386 (Núñez; D-Los Angeles) Increased Agricultural Costs.
Would have eliminated the requirement for secret-ballot elections for union representation among farm employees, stripping them of their right to decide free of intimidation on that crucial subject by creating a new, completely unsupervised process called a mediated election.

SB 840 (Kuehl; D-Santa Monica) Government-Run Health Care.
Would have created a new government-run, multi-billion-dollar socialized health care system financed from a yet-to-be-specified tax increase.

SB 1115 (Migden; D-San Francisco) Workers’ Compensation Reform Roll Back.
Would have increased workers’ compensation costs and rolled back the workers’ compensation reforms from 2004 by making apportionment very difficult to prove.

SB 1717 (Perata; D-Oakland) Workers’ Compensation Reform Roll Back.
Would have increased workers’ compensation costs and rolled back the workers’ compensation reforms from 2004 by arbitrarily doubling permanent disability benefits and altering the 15% bump up/down provision in current law.

AB 2447 (Jones; D-Sacramento) Construction Job Loss.
Would have severely limited residential and commercial development in certain areas of California. 

SB 974 (Lowenthal; D-Long Beach) Tax on Freight Movement.
Would have increased the cost of shipping goods and made California less competitive by imposing an unconstitutional per-container tax in the ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles and Oakland.

Governor Schwarzenegger signed SB 375 (Steinberg; D-Sacramento), a CalChamber identified job killer. SB 375 deals with growth, transportation and an attempted reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The Governor agreed with CalChamber’s concerns about implementation of this bill. In his signature message, the Governor indicated that he expects the author to work with the administration, the sponsors, and stakeholders to ensure that clean-up legislation addresses those issues in the next session.

In 2008, CalChamber identified 39 pieces of “job killing” legislation. At the end of the legislative session, only 10 were still active and sent to the Governor. In previous years, Governor Schwarzenegger has vetoed CalChamber identified “job killer” bills that reached his desk as follows:

• 2007 — Twelve of 12 “job killer” bills vetoed;
• 2006 — Nine of 11 “job killer” bills vetoed; 
• 2005 — Seven of eight “job killer” bills vetoed; 
• 2004 — Ten out of 10 “job killer” bills vetoed.