By HOWARD FINE
A coalition of statewide business groups has listed 32 bills making their way through the state Legislature as “job-killers” and is mounting a full-court press to stop them.
The Coalition for California Jobs,a group that includes manufacturers, major corporations, small-business owners and anti-tax groups,recently issued its fourth annual job-killer bill list.
The total doesn’t match the record 45 bills the coalition tagged last year. But it claimed that the state’s business climate could be seriously harmed if any of the bills pass.
“One piece of ‘job killer’ legislation is bad, but all 32 bills directly target California’s economic development by putting up barriers that will make state businesses less competitive and drive up costs for consumers,” said Jack Stewart, president of the California Manufacturers & Technology Association.
The bills range from the perennial proposals for a single-payer healthcare system and raising the minimum wage (with annual cost of living increases) to a proposed cap on carbon emissions and an increase in the personal income tax paid by small-business owners.
Democrat lawmakers who authored these bills and their labor union allies dismissed the release of the job-killer bill list as a ploy to generate a climate of fear.
“(The list) is a scare tactic,” said Art Pulaski, California Labor Federation chief. “What the Chamber of Commerce shows is that they are dead-set against every improvement for workers.”
All of these bills cleared their house of origin last month, but last year only eight of the 45 bills cleared made it all the way through to the governor’s desk,only to be vetoed.
Given that history, it’s not likely any of the bills will become law, though Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has moved toward the center since his special election ballot measures failed in November.
Indeed, business advocates are taking no chances.
They held a press conference in June to unveil the job-killer bill list and have dispatched their lobbyists to make the case against each of the bills.
The bill drawing the most attention is Assembly Bill 32, originally introduced by Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills. It would have an impact on many manufacturing plants in North Orange County.
This “greenhouse gas” bill would require facilities emitting high levels of carbon to report those emissions to the state Air Resources Board. It authorizes the Air Resources Board to draw up regulations to reduce those emissions during the next 15 years.
Pavley has defended her legislation in the face of escalating business attacks, saying the search for new technologies to reduce carbon emissions would generate thousands of jobs.
Schwarzenegger has indicated he favors reducing carbon emissions. Business groups are uncertain what he would do if the Pavley bill ends up on his desk.
The minimum wage proposals are Assembly Bill 1835 from Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, and Senate Bill 1162, from state Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles. They would increase the minimum wage to at least $7.75 an hour and then adjust the wage annually with inflation.
Assemblywoman Wilma Chan, D-Oakland, is seeking to increase the state’s highest personal income tax rate from 9.3% to 11%. The hike would hit many small-business owners and partnerships, which typically pay this tax.
Other measures include one that would grant employer-paid unemployment insurance benefits to workers involved in labor disputes, add new restrictions on housing developments, impose additional hoops for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other big-box retailers that want to expand, mandate the use of alternative fuels, expand grounds for lawsuits and boost taxes.
Fine is a staff reporter with the Los Angeles Business Journal.
