Job Killing Bills Hobble California in Global Competition

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Loren Kaye, president of the California Foundation for Commerce and Education, commented on foxandhoundsdaily about the CalChamber's list of "job killing" legislation released on April 10. A total of 23 bills were listed, that, in CalChamber's view, would further curb California’s competitiveness and chill the investment climate. 

Kaye states that labor unions and the tax-and-regulation lobby view reforms to improve flexibility for workers and expedite permits for job-creating development as "a race to the bottom."

However, Kaye's view is that California has "already reached the bottom... bringing up the rear in competitiveness, business tax climate, and trailing the pack in regulatory climate." He states that an overwhelming margin of executives and owners maintain that is is harder to do business in California than in other states.

Kaye lists several proposed bills that illustrate his point:

AB 2517 by Assembly Member Mike Eng would allow any employee in a wage dispute to file a lien on his employer’s real property – business or personal. Existence of these super-precedent liens will chill the real estate market, not to mention new hiring.

AB 1897 by Assembly Member Nora Campos would require local governments to amend their general plans to ensure residents have access to healthy food, including access to discount grocery stores, urban farming, community gardens and developing incentives for solar refrigerators.

AB 1450 by Assembly Member Michael Allen would prohibit employers from legitimately inquiring into a prospective employee’s employment history, for fear of discovering that the prospect may have been ... currently or in the past ... unemployed. What’s more, the bill would effectively create for state contractors a hiring preference for unemployed persons.

AB 1963 and AB 2540, by Assembly Members Alyson Huber and Mike Gatto, respectively, would create new taxes on services, ranging from shoe shines and ski lifts to attorneys and advertisers. Oddly, neither of these tax proposals is purportedly aimed at raising new, additional revenue for the state, but as a way to redistribute the tax burden. In each case, the tax burden would generally shift from the well-to-do to the middle class. What’s more, in taxing services, consumers have enormous discretion in using fewer services or, in the case of businesses, doing them in house. So the real losers will be the (often low-skilled) workers who will lose their jobs.

The common thread linking these job killers is increased costs. More regulation, more litigation, more time and more taxes create increased and unnecessary costs that lead businesses to grow more slowly in California and increasingly lead consumers to do business outside California.

In Kaye's opinion, "the path to the bottom is marked by closing off free trade, loading the litigation cannon aimed at employers, and erecting permit obstacles before new investments can create California jobs. California has a daunting task to pull regain its competitiveness. It can’t be a leader in the global economy if it interferes in the global marketplace. Making short work of the job killers is a small step in the right direction."

For a full list of the bills, please visit www.CAJobKillers.com.