your post was a complete non sequitur
what does the "hugely expensive university system" of CA have to do with the newly signed by davis health insurance regulations imposed on business?
The reason you start a business in CA is because you want to access the money that Cisco and Oracle created in the North and the film industry, Disney etc. created in the south, it isn't because its cheap here, just the fact that wealth exists here means it will be more expensive by default, no?
oh i'm too sure the local bakery, or small machine tool shop or independent auto service co. or whatever else small local biz would agree with that reasoning. please understand, tech co's like cisco or oracle are not be all and end all of the CA economy. far from it.
what davis did with the recent mandate for mid and small size co's providing health care is simply going to drive the businesses that can uproot and move away from the state to do so...
some can't leave....those companies will probably be forced to lay off employees to meet the expense of the CA government mandate...more job loss...more revennue loss...are you following this yet????
California Business Roundtable
Urges Veto of ‘Job Killer’ Legislation
SACRAMENTO, CA – The California Business Roundtable today expressed disappointment over passage of 'Job Killer' legislation in the final hours of the legislative session. Instead of putting jobs first, legislators sent bills to the Governor that will exacerbate the state’s downward economic spiral. We urge the Governor to carefully consider the harmful impact of these 'job killer' bills.
calchamber.com
September 22, 2003 Status Update: Legislature Sends Costly 'Job Killers' to Governor - View Press Release
2003 ‘Job Killer’ Bill List Longest Ever
The Coalition for California Jobs believes that protecting and creating jobs in California should be the top priority of policymakers. Economic growth and job creation are the keys to eliminating the state budget deficit, funding important programs like education and improving our quality of life. Unfortunately, there are numerous examples of pending legislation that will kill jobs.
Visit the coalition's Jobs 1st website.
See how legislators voted.
How Jobs Are KilledJobs are killed when employers lay off workers or can’t afford to hire workers to provide goods and services to consumers. Workers are laid off (or wages are reduced) if consumers do not buy goods and services from businesses, or because the cost of providing those goods or services has increased to the point where the business is not competitive. Consumers will not buy goods and services if they have less money to spend, or if the goods and services are a lesser value (higher cost/lesser quality) than alternatives in the marketplace. Lower wages and fewer jobs are the result of an employer not being successful in the marketplace — when an employer is NOT competitive and/or consumers have no money to spend.
Government kills jobs when it passes laws, rules and regulations that discourage investment and production, that add unnecessary cost and burdens to goods and services, or that make California employers uncompetitive.
Job killer bills make employers less competitive or take resources from consumers.
While there are hundreds of pieces of bad legislation pending in the Capitol, there are 53 bills on the 2003 job killer list. These bills impose burdensome or unnecessary regulations that increase costs on businesses, create new workplace mandates, increase litigation, expand government at businesses’ expense, criminalize inadvertent business error, or impose new or higher fees and taxes.
1. Expensive, Unnecessary Regulatory BurdensThese bills impose burdensome and unnecessary regulations that increase costs for employers, making their products or services more expensive, without providing significant consumer, environmental or other benefits. This makes employers less competitive and takes more money from consumers, thus killing jobs.
Environmental, Energy and Other Regulatory Bills
SB 18 (Burton; D-San Francisco). Grants new, far-reaching powers to curb development to the tribe-dominated Native American Heritage Commission. Status: Failed in Assembly.
How it kills jobs: The bill adds more bureaucracy to an already-complicated process and gives a special interest-dominated commission veto authority over virtually all development projects in California. This has the potential to kill jobs by halting or delaying development projects throughout the state.
AB 406 (Jackson; D-Santa Barbara). Prohibits project applicants from submitting draft reports or participating in document initiation and preparation under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: The construction sector has been among the most productive during this economic recession. This bill will lead to inaccurate environmental impact reports (EIR), higher project costs, more project litigation and unnecessary delays in public review and approvals. This raises costs to employers and consumers, killing jobs.
SB 532 (Romero; D-Los Angeles). Significantly expands CEQA by requiring risk assessment studies even when state environmental and public health officials find that a risk assessment is not necessary. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: CEQA already contains the most rigorous environmental protection requirements in the nation. Employers spend billions of dollars annually complying with these tough environmental rules. Unnecessary studies will add more costs, making products and services more expensive, killing jobs.
AB 1015 (Laird; D-Santa Cruz). Imposes redundant and unnecessary drinking water verification for development that conflicts with existing policy. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: The bill will result in extensive, costly litigation and will needlessly slow down development in the state, raising costs on consumers, killing jobs.
SB 923 (Sher; D-Palo Alto). Imposes conditions on waivers for waste discharges. Status: To Governor.
How it kills jobs: Imposes costly, unnecessary and unreasonable new conditions on dischargers even while regional water boards are revising waiver policies. Deprives the regional boards of flexibility needed to fashion waivers tailored to individual and categories of dischargers. This raises costs to employers, increasing costs to consumers, killing jobs.
SB 888 (Dunn; D-Garden Grove). Re-regulates the energy markets, increases energy costs, eliminates direct access and threatens new supplies. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: The bill raises the cost of electricity for many manufacturing employers, making their products less competitive, killing jobs. It also threatens future electricity supplies, making future prices likely higher and supplies less reliable, causing employers not to expand in California, killing jobs.
SB 304 (Morrow; R-Oceanside). Mandates the same price of gasoline between refiners and franchise dealers within a region. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: By forcing refiners to offer the lowest wholesale price to all dealers in a region, refiners are not likely to lower the price to meet competition in a particular location within the region, thus keeping retail prices higher. If they do lower prices across a region, the refiner may choose to make up any losses in less competitive markets, exacerbating the existing regional differences in gasoline prices. In addition to creating an enforcement nightmare, this bill makes gasoline more expensive for employers and consumers, killing jobs.
SB 974 (Alarcón; D-Van Nuys). Grants bid preference for “socially responsible” businesses doing business with the state. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Bidding preferences hurt small businesses in California that cannot absorb the various costs associated with meeting the various standards established in law. Each new standard represents a new cost to bidding on state projects, placing many California businesses at a competitive disadvantage, costing jobs.
SB 288 (Sher; D-Palo Alto). Blocks federal reforms of “new source review” rules and creates new lawsuits. Status: Signed. Chapter 476.
How it kills jobs: Conflicting and confusing grafting of federal law onto state law would jeopardize existing permits and weaken current air pollution requirements while likely resulting in new fees on employers. Unnecessary lawsuits would increase costs of litigation, killing jobs.
AB 623 (Lieber; D-Mountain View). Imposes criminal penalties for Proposition 65 chemical releases even if employer does not know of the release. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Already-strict laws prohibiting chemical discharges with hefty civil penalties and private attorney rights of action would become even more punitive, with criminal liability for unknowing and unintended releases. This greatly increases the risks and costs of doing business in California, encouraging companies to leave the state, raising costs to consumers, making employers less competitive, killing jobs.
SB 810 (Burton; D-San Francisco). Unnecessarily complicates the ability of landowners to conduct prudent stewardship of private forestlands. To Governor.
How it kills jobs: Will result in the loss of billions of dollars in state taxes, closure of many mills, and the loss of thousands of family wage jobs.
AB 47 (Simitian; D-Palo Alto). Imposes redundant regulation on timber harvesting plans (THP). Status: Amended to remove opposition. To Governor.
How it kills jobs: California timber rules lead the nation. This bill requires findings and studies for THPs that are redundant to existing cumulative impact analysis for THPs. This will raise the cost of timber products in California, making other states’ products more cost competitive, further killing jobs in California.
SB 1 (Speier; D-Hillsborough/Burton; D-San Francisco). Originally prohibited information sharing with non-affiliated companies unless consumers provided express permission, regulated information sharing among affiliates and imposed civil penalties. Status. Amended to remove opposition. Signed. Chapter 241.
How it would have killed jobs: Existing federal law provides privacy protection for sensitive consumer information. California has already passed over 40 laws to further protect consumer privacy. This bill would have required major and costly changes in business and information technology practices, and exposed employers to civil penalties and unfair competition lawsuits, increasing costs to consumers, killing jobs.
SB 64 (Speier; D-Hillsborough). Prohibits an insurer from using credit scores to set the price for a homeowner policy or to determine whether a homeowner policy will be offered. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Consumers benefit from use of credit scoring because they earn discounted premiums. This bill will exacerbate an already tight homeowners insurance market, increase premiums to consumers and may also drive insurers from the California market, killing jobs.
AB 16 (Jackson; D-Santa Barbara). Restricts movement of oil produced from offshore platforms to pipelines. Status: To Governor.
How it kills jobs: Creates oil supply uncertainty, raising prices for petroleum products, increasing costs for employers and consumers, killing jobs.
SB 679 (Ortiz; D-Sacramento). Mandates nutritional information for all food sold in restaurants. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Burdensome and onerous requirement that would raise the cost of restaurant food for consumers, expose owners to lawsuits for incorrect information, making employers less competitive, killing jobs.
2. Expensive Workplace MandatesThese include bills that impose burdensome mandates on employers or unnecessarily restrict operations in the workplace that make products and services more expensive. This makes employers less competitive and takes resources away from consumers, killing jobs.
Health Care Mandates
SB 2 (Burton; D-San Francisco). Requires employers to provide health insurance or pay tax. Status: To Governor.
How it kills jobs: Imposes new multibillion-dollar cost on employers, raising cost to consumers and making employers less competitive, killing jobs.
SB 921 (Kuehl; D-Santa Monica). Universal health insurance funded by employers. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Imposes new multibillion-dollar cost on employers, raising cost to consumers and making employers less competitive, killing jobs.
AB 1527 (Frommer; D-Los Angeles). Requires most employers to provide health insurance or pay tax. Status: Stopped for now, but see SB 2 mandate above.
How it kills jobs: Imposes new multibillion-dollar cost on employers, raising cost to consumers and making employers less competitive, killing jobs.
AB 1528 (Cohn; D-Saratoga). Originally required employers pay costs of state health insurance for employees. Neutral as amended to call for state commission to report on health care cost containment strategies. Status: To Governor.
How it would have killed jobs: Would have imposed new multibillion-dollar cost on employers, raising cost to consumers and making employers less competitive, killing jobs.
Other Workplace Mandates
AB 226 (Vargas; D-Chula Vista). Prohibits the issuance of corporate-owned life insurance (COLI). Status: Signed. Chapter 328.
How it kills jobs: Many employers use corporate-owned life insurance policies as a way to pay for employee retirement and benefit plans. By eliminating COLI policies, these employers would be forced to drop health coverage and retiree benefits or fund them by cutting wages, jobs or other employee benefits.
SB 57 (Burton; D-San Francisco). Mandates yearly increases in minimum wage rates to track the consumer price index. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Employer costs would rise by at least $624 million annually, raising costs to consumers and making employers less competitive, killing jobs.
SB 576 (Alarcón; D-Van Nuys). Extends benefits for unemployment insurance (UI). Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Increases employer UI costs by $404 million by triggering payment of UI without regard to looming UI Trust Fund insolvency or double-digit employer UI tax increases made likely by last year’s huge benefit increase. This raises costs of employer’s products and services, making employer less competitive, killing jobs.
SB 569 (Alarcón; D-Van Nuys). Creates a new way to qualify for unemployment insurance. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Raises the cost of UI by at least $120 million annually, increasing cost of products and services, making employers less competitive, killing jobs.
3. Increases Frivolous LitigationThese bills make it easier to bring frivolous lawsuits against employers, making them pay more for attorneys and settlements. This increases the costs of products and services, making the employers less competitive and taking resources from consumers, killing jobs.
AB 274 (Koretz; D-West Hollywood). Presumes that an employer is retaliating against an employee if the employer discharges, demotes, suspends or reduces the hours or pay of an employee within 90 days after an employee makes a claim under the Labor Code. Status: To Governor.
How it kills jobs: An employee can create a 90-day safe harbor against employer action by filing a claim under the Labor Code because proving a negative (that the action was NOT in retaliation) is nearly impossible. This reduces employer’s ability to manage wages and hours, discipline troublesome employees, thus raising costs on products and services, making the employer less competitive, killing jobs.
AB 1715 (Corbett; D-San Leandro). Limits use of arbitration in employment contracts. Status: To Governor.
How it kills jobs: By resulting in more employment disputes being adjudicated through the courts, rather than the normally more streamlined arbitration process, the bill will drive up the cost of litigation, killing jobs.
SB 917 (Alarcón; D-Van Nuys). Creates vague and expansive legal liability for corporation directors. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Would discourage qualified individuals from serving as corporate directors, increase costs for insurance (if available) and attorneys in the case of litigation, raising the costs of products and services, killing jobs.
SB 515 (Kuehl; D-Santa Monica). Deny employers the right to use anti-SLAPP motions. Status: Signed. Chapter 338.
How it kills jobs: Employers’ right to free speech would be infringed by frivolous lawsuits, making defense against lawsuits more expensive, making the employer less competitive and raising costs to consumers, killing jobs.
AB 95 (Corbett; D-San Leandro). Expands lawsuits under the Unfair Competition Law. Status: Tied to SB 122, which failed in Assembly.
How it kills jobs: Employers are frequently the subject of frivolous and abusive lawsuits filed under the so-called Unfair Competition Law. Routinely, small businesses are subjected to “shakedown” lawsuits filed by attorneys with the goal of extracting settlements to avoid incurring substantial legal defense costs. Rather than meaningfully reform this abusive litigation practice, AB 95 expands the ability of attorneys to shakedown businesses, increasing litigation costs, killing jobs.
SB 122 (Escutia; D-Montebello). Originally called for employers sued under the Unfair Competition Law (UCL) to “disgorge” profits, even if no injury is found. Amendments removed "disgorgement" provisions, leaving sham reforms. Status: Failed in Assembly.
How it kills jobs: Abusive and frivolous lawsuits under the UCL, already a problem for employers who are victims of extortion to avoid costly litigation, would greatly expand under these bills to create a new fund of money to reward aggressive attorneys. Raises costs for employers and consumers, killing jobs.
AB 634 (Steinberg; D-Sacramento). No protective orders allowed for settlements of alleged elder abuse. Status: Signed. Chapter 242.
How it kills jobs: Would discourage settlements of lawsuits in elder abuse cases, increasing litigation costs and delaying recovery, raise the costs of insurance, taking resources from consumers, killing jobs.
AB 76 (Corbett; D-San Leandro). Originally made employers liable for the harassment of a worker by a person over whom the employer has no control, such as customers and clients. Amended to narrow scope to sexual harassment, but business still opposed. Status: To Governor.
How it would have killed jobs: Increased insurance costs, exposing employers to attorneys fees, settlements and judgments, raising costs of products, making employers less competitive, killing jobs.
AB 223 (Diaz; D-San Jose). Employers pay attorney fees even if only one-penny judgment for employee. Status: Signed. Chapter 93. View Chamber press release.
How it kills jobs: Attorneys will be encouraged to sue employers even when there is no real injury to the employee in order to earn attorney fees. This increases the cost to employers in insurance, attorney fees, settlements, etc. making them less competitive by increasing costs to consumers, killing jobs.
SB 796 (Dunn; D-Garden Grove). Allows bounty-hunting private attorneys to sue employers for wage-and-hour Labor Code violations. Status: To Governor.
How it kills jobs: Expands the grounds by which employers can be sued by private attorneys, increasing the risks of hiring employees, increasing insurance costs, increasing attorney fees, increasing costs of settlements, raising costs to consumers, making the employer less competitive, killing jobs.
AB 1582 (Koretz; D-West Hollywood). Creates a vague new reason to sue employers for harassment, adding “abusive workplace environment” to the list of prohibited employment practices. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Increases cost of litigation, settlements, insurance, and adds a new way for aggressive attorneys to profit from frivolous lawsuits, killing jobs.
4. Expands Government at Employers’ ExpenseThese bills create new state programs to be funded by fees on employers, with little or no accountability or program review. This increases costs to employers and consumers, making employers less competitive, killing jobs.
SB 204 (Perata; D-Alameda). Fees on diapers to fund new, unproven recycling technology. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Increases bureaucracy and the cost of government, increases the cost of products, making employers less competitive, results in less discretionary income for young families with children, killing jobs.
AB 586 (Koretz; D-West Hollywood). Imposes $200 million annual tax on purchasers of disposable cups and bags to fund ocean clean-up. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Increases bureaucracy and the cost of government, increases the cost of products and services, taking resources from consumers, killing jobs.
SB 511 (Figueroa; D-Fremont). Fees on manufacturers to fund recycling program for mercury light bulbs. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Moving from current system to requiring manufacturers to fund a recycling process would increase transaction costs for recycling. Will substantially increase the cost of energy-efficient light bulbs, increasing costs for California’s consumers, killing jobs.
SB 20 (Sher; D-Palo Alto). Imposes fee on manufacturers of any electronic device to fund recycling, and prohibits sale in the state of any device for which a fee has not been paid. Status: Signed. Chapter 526.
How it kills jobs: Purchases over the Internet from out-of-state manufacturers could avoid the fee, making California products more expensive and less competitive, killing jobs.
AB 1500 (Diaz; D-San Jose). Imposes $700 million annual fee on oil to fund new programs. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: This bill would result in a 3- to-4 cent hike in the price of fuel, dramatically increasing costs to consumers and employers throughout the state, killing jobs.
5. Criminalize Business ConductThese bills make criminals out of businesses for violating various rules, paperwork requirements or administrative matters. This is on top of already-substantial administrative and civil fines, penalties and legal liability. They send an anti-jobs message of “be a business, go to jail,” chilling investment in California, killing jobs.
AB 897 (Jackson; D-Santa Barbara). Regional water boards can’t consider economics in issuing waste discharge requirements. Imposes new civil and criminal penalties on wastewater dischargers. Status: Amended to remove opposition.
How it would have killed jobs: It could prohibit discharges into federally listed “impaired” waters, the vast majority of California’s waters, even if the discharge does not affect use of the water. These limitations would be costly to overcome, raising costs to consumers and making the employer less competitive, killing jobs.
SB 766 (Florez; D-Shafter). Extends securities fraud liability to officers, directors, accountants and banks even if they did not trade in securities or intentionally make false statements. Status: Failed Senate, May 29, 11-25.
How it kills jobs: Makes operating facilities and hiring employees in California very risky, increasing the costs of insurance, reducing choices for consumers and raising prices, killing jobs.
AB 572 (Yee; D-San Francisco). New incentives to file retaliation suits against employers. Status: Failed in Senate Appropriations.
How it kills jobs: Adds new grounds for retaliation suits against employers, increases penalties, adds personal liability and creates a new crime, including jail time, for violations. Increases insurance costs, attorney fees, settlements, judgments, raising prices and making employers less competitive, killing jobs.
6. New Taxes and FeesThese bills impose new taxes and fees to pay for existing government programs or under the guise of reforming the tax code or the budget process. Higher taxes and fees will have a direct result of increasing the cost of products and services, making employers less competitive and taking resources from consumers, killing jobs.
(Note: these are just a few examples of the numerous pending tax and fee proposals. For a comprehensive list, please log on to www.caltax.org.)
ACA 16 (Hancock; D-Berkeley). Raises property taxes on businesses by enacting a “split roll” constitutional amendment. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Extracts more money from employers to pay for government programs, making employers less competitive, taking resources from consumers, discouraging business investment in real property, killing jobs.
SB 516 (Speier; D-Hillsborough). Raises taxes on small businesses by limiting use of Subchapter S status to under $20 million employers. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Extracts more money from employers to pay for government programs, making employers less competitive and taking resources from consumers, killing jobs.
AB 1690 (Leno; D-San Francisco). Local governments can raise income taxes. Status: Weakened by amendments and most likely stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Extracts more money from employers to pay for government programs, making employers less competitive and taking resources from consumers, killing jobs.
SB 400 (Florez; D-Shafter). Imposes sales tax on services. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Extracts more money from employers to pay for government programs, making employers less competitive and taking resources from consumers, killing jobs.
SB 981 (Soto; D-Pomona). Increases cost of fuel by enacting a refinery gate tax of 30 cents per barrel. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Extracts more money from employers to pay for government programs, making employers less competitive, increasing cost of fuel, taking resources from consumers, killing jobs.
SB 541 (Torlakson; D-Martinez). Indexes the gas tax for inflation, resulting in near-automatic tax increases. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Extracts more money from employers to pay for government programs, making employers less competitive, increasing the cost of fuel, taking resources from consumers, killing jobs.
SB 557 (Kuehl; D-Santa Monica). Imposes a tax on timber-related products. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Extracts more money from employers to pay for government programs, making employers less competitive, increasing the cost of timber products, increasing housing costs, taking resources from consumers, killing jobs.
SB 108 (Romero; D-Los Angeles). Imposes a “nickel a drink” tax on alcohol. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Extracts more money from employers to pay for government programs, making employers less competitive, increasing costs to consumers, killing jobs.
SB 726 (Romero; D-Los Angeles). Counties can impose taxes on sales of alcoholic beverages. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Extracts more money from employers to pay for government programs, making employers less competitive, increasing costs to consumers, killing jobs.
SB 676 (Ortiz; D-Sacramento). Imposes tobacco manufacturers fees. Status: Stopped for now.
How it kills jobs: Extracts more money from employers to pay for government programs, making employers less competitive and taking resources from consumers, killing jobs. |
