State legislators will consider hundreds of bills today in a rush to send pending legislation to the Governor by tonight’s end-of-session deadline. Among those bills are two California Chamber of Commerce job killer bills that will raise costs on businesses and expose employers to frivolous litigation.
The CalChamber also is closely monitoring several opposed bills that will further burden businesses across California.
The Governor will have until October 13 to sign or veto bills passed by the Legislature today.
Job Killer Bills
The following job killer bills remain to be voted on by the Legislature:
- AB 1066 (Gonzalez; D-San Diego) significantly increases costs on employers engaged in a trade dispute by allowing employees on strike to receive unemployment benefits if the strike lasts more than four weeks, incentivizing strikes, burdening employers, and potentially affecting the solvency of California’s UI fund.
- SB 1 (Atkins; D-San Diego) unnecessarily threatens water supply reliability for millions of Californians and threatens to exacerbate California’s housing crisis and disrupt agricultural operations throughout California.
Opposed Bills
CalChamber-opposed bills left to be considered today include:
- AB 744 (Aguiar-Curry; D-Winters) increases health care premiums for employers and enrollees by eliminating the cost savings benefit of telehealth and requiring telehealth services to be reimbursed on the same basis and to the same extent as in-person medical services.
- AB 857 (Chiu; D-San Francisco) jeopardizes taxpayers dollars because if a public bank fails taxpayers are liable whereas stockholders are liable if commercial banks fail.
- ACA 14 (Gonzalez; D-San Diego) Unnecessarily impedes the ability of the University of California (UC) to use its restricted state funding in the most efficient manner possible to continue expanding enrollment without compromising on the quality of the education it provides or substantially increasing the state’s General Fund contribution by placing an unreasonable contract prohibition on the UC for support services.
Governor Signs Sponsored Bill
A bill sponsored by the CalChamber, AB 1607 (Boerner Horvath; D-Encinitas), was signed by the Governor yesterday. The bill provides notice to businesses at the time they get their license of the Gender Tax Repeal Act so that they can avoid predatory and costly lawsuits.
