Opposition from the California Chamber of Commerce and allied groups has stopped a number of job killer bills in recent weeks while amendments have removed the most onerous aspects of other job killer bills.
In addition, as Alert went to print, the fate of several job killer bills depended on action by the Senate or Assembly. May 31 is the deadline for bills to pass out of the house in which they were introduced.
Newly Identified/Pending
• AB 1080 (Gonzalez; D-San Diego) Unprecedented Product Regulation in California: Would substantially increase the cost to manufacture and ship consumer products sold in California by providing CalRecycle with broad authority to develop and impose costly new mandates and fees on manufacturers of all packaging and single-use consumer products under an unrealistic compliance time frame.
CalChamber identified AB 1080 as a job killer because it will likely lead to discriminatory and burdensome taxes on businesses and employers. Passed Assembly on May 30.
• SB 54 (Allen; D-Santa Monica) Unprecedented Product Regulation in California (Same language as AB 1080): Would substantially increase the cost to manufacture and ship consumer products sold in California by providing CalRecycle with broad authority to develop and impose costly new mandates and fees on manufacturers of all packaging and single-use consumer products under an unrealistic compliance time frame.
CalChamber has identified SB 54 as a job killer for the same reasons stated above for AB 1080. Passed Senate on May 29, 28-8.
Stalled
• AB 755 (Holden; D-Pasadena) Targeted Tax on Purchase of Tires: Imposes a $1.50 targeted tax on the purchase of new tires, that will unfairly raise prices on California residents, including employers, in order to fund the mitigation of zinc in storm water for all. Placed on Assembly Inactive File on May 29 at author’s request.
• SB 246 (Wieckowski; D-Fremont) Targeted Tax on Oil and Gas Operators: Unfairly targets one industry by imposing a 10% oil and gas severance tax onto an oil and gas operator, adding another layer of taxes onto this industry that will significantly increase the costs of doing business, thereby increasing prices paid by consumers for goods and services in this expensive state as well. In Senate Rules Committee.
• SCA 5 (Hill; D-San Mateo/Allen; D-Santa Monica) Lowers Voter Threshold for New Tax Increase: Unnecessarily reduces the voter threshold from two-thirds to 55% for school districts and community college districts to enact a discriminatory parcel tax against disfavored industries and commercial property owners. Placed on Senate Inactive File on May 21 at author’s request.
A tax or constitutional amendment is not subject to the same procedural requirements as other bills and still could move at some point this year.
Held in Fiscal Committees
The following job killer bills never advanced beyond legislative fiscal committees. The bills may be considered again next year.
Held in Assembly Appropriations Committee
•AB 345 (Muratsuchi; D-Torrance) Oil and Gas Development Ban: Would eliminate thousands of high-paying California jobs and require California to import even more foreign oil by banning new oil and gas development, re-drilling operations, and rework operations by imposing a state minimum 2,500-foot setback requirement from certain structures, and further authorizing local governments to enact even greater setback requirements, without limitation.
• AB 790 (Levine; D-San Rafael) Increased Cost on Employers for Use of Personal Services Contracts: Discourages and reduces the use of “personal services contracts” as defined, by requiring the hiring entity to pay a minimum contractual compensation rate at 85% of the area median income, which will presumably include wages from different industries and occupations that are not comparable to personal services, and reduce jobs for individuals who perform the work under personal services contracts.
• AB 1332 (Bonta; D-Oakland) Contract Prohibition for Businesses that Provide Services to Federal Government: Prohibits California public entities from contracting with, or investing in, any business that provides data-related services to an undefined group of federal agencies. Will create litigation and uncertainty for businesses that continue to work with California public entities, as the bill provides no clear guidance on how to comply with terms, and also in limited circumstances, compels public entities to breach signed contracts.
Held in Senate Appropriations Committee
• SB 561 (Jackson; D-Santa Barbara) Significant Expansion of Liability and Litigation Under California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) of 2018: Creates an onerous and costly private right of action that will primarily benefit trial lawyers, allowing them to sue for any violations of the CCPA, and removes businesses’ 30-day right to cure an alleged violation of the CCPA as well as businesses’ ability to seek guidance from the Attorney General on how to comply with this confusing and complex law.
Amended
• AB 673 (Carrillo; D-Los Angeles) Unfair Expansion of Penalties Against an Employer for Alleged Wage Violation. Before amendments, unfairly penalized an employer twice for the same Labor Code violation and created a new private right of action, allowing three different avenues of recovery for the same alleged violation while reducing revenue to the state. Opposition and job killer tag removed due to May 24 amendments.
The author agreed to remove the individual private right of action from the bill, which would have provided a third avenue of enforcement against an employer, and increased costly litigation against employers.
• AB 857 (Chiu; D-San Francisco) Significant Risk to Taxpayer Dollars and Community Investment: Before amendments, jeopardized taxpayer dollars, community banks, and funding for small businesses that create jobs in local communities, by allowing the creation of local public banks which will impose significant costs and risks to taxpayer revenue for operations and capital, as well as unfairly compete with local community banks. Job killer tag removed due to recent amendments, but CalChamber still opposes.
• SB 468 (Jackson; D-Santa Barbara) $20 Billion Tax Increase. Before amendments, repealed several of California’s most popular and most important tax exemptions and expenditures, which would raise taxes by $20 billion. Job killer status removed due to May 7 amendments that eliminate the automatic repeal of these tax exemptions. CalChamber remains oppose unless amended.
For information on other job killer bills, including bills that missed the April 26 deadline to move from policy to fiscal committees, visit calchamber.com/jobkillers.
