Following the annual legislative house of origin deadline, NFIB California reflected on our victories and challenges ahead with our “The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly” bill list. Each year we proactively identify which bills will have the greatest impact, either negative or positive, to our 22,000 small businesses across California. Throughout the year we advocate in the Capitol for these priorities in order to lower the burden and cost of doing business in this state.
It is now halftime in the Legislature, and with that comes some welcome victories for small business, but more importantly there remain significant challenges ahead in these final months of this legislative session. With this being the first year in the 2017-18 two-year session, it is important to remember nothing is ever truly dead, but below are some highlights of where small business stands at legislative halftime.
Victories:
Good Bills Passed
AB 657 (Cunningham): Requires state agencies that significantly impact small businesses to display the name and contact information of the small business liaison on the agency’s Web site, and to fill any vacancy in this position within 3 months. Passed out of Assembly, in Senate Appropriations.
AB 816 (Kiley): Requires public California Environmental Protection Agency meetings, including subordinate departments like CARB and OEHHA, to be broadcast online and interactive to the public. It also requires them to be recorded for future access. Passed out of the Assembly, in Senate Rules.
Bad Bills Stopped
AB 5 (Gonzalez-Fletcher): Requires employers with 10 or more total employees to offer more hours to their part-time employees before they can hire new workers, including temporary or seasonal staff. It creates a new right to sue your employer if you don’t get more hours. Held in Assembly Appropriations.
AB 43 (Thurmond): Imposes a 10% tax on businesses that contract with CDCR for the “privilege” of having a state contract in order to fund education programs designed to discourage future criminals. It sets a bad precedent by taxing businesses just for having a state contract. Held in Assembly Appropriations.
SB 300 (Monning): Requires all sugar-sweetened beverages sold in California to have a health warning label, and creates new civil penalties for failure to do so. This is yet another example of nanny government. Held in Senate Health.
Challenges Ahead:
Needs to Pass
AB 12 (Cooley): Requires all agencies to do a full review of their regulations to see if they are outdated, too costly, or overlap with other rules. Such a full-scale review has not happened in decades. Held in Assembly Appropriations.
AB 77 (Fong): Requires legislative approval for any regulations with an economic impact of over $50 million. Held in Assembly Appropriations.
AB 281/AB 1429/AB 1430: Create desperately needed PAGA reforms, including extending the timeframe in which a business can cure a problem before being sued, limiting the types of PAGA suits, and requiring an agency investigation before suing.
AB 1005 (Calderon): The Department of Consumer Affairs oversees the licensure of businesses and professions. This bill would allow 30 days for abatement of the violation before the administrative fine becomes effective. Held in Assembly Appropriations.
Need to Stop
AB 1008 (McCarty): Prohibits employers from asking applicants about convictions until they make a conditional offer of employment. It creates new obligations and liabilities for employers and allows for new lawsuits. It will hamstring a small business owner’s ability to quickly fill a position. Passed out of the Assembly, in Senate Rules.
SB 2 (Atkins): Creates a new $75-$225 per document fee (or tax) for the transfer of real property to fund affordable housing programs. Held on the Senate Floor.
SB 562 (Lara): Creates fiscally reckless single-payer healthcare system in California. This would cost $400-500 billion annually, and would require enormous tax increases to fund. It would hurt the quality of healthcare for our citizens. Passed out of the Senate, in Assembly Rules.
SB 640 (Hertzberg): An intent bill that will expand the state sales tax to services. Small businesses would have to collect a new tax, and also pay the tax when they contract out for services. Held in Senate Governance & Finance.