from the editorial board of the Orange County Register
Unemployment in California has remained stuck well above 12 percent all year, compared with the 9.7 percent national rate in May. The national and California economic recoveries are weak, with especially slow job growth, as shown by both the June 3 Chapman University and the June 15 UCLA economic forecasts.
So, what is the Legislature doing? Working, perhaps, on the fiscal 2010-11 budget that was due June 15? Nope. They’re crafting jobs-killer bills. As the saying has it, no rest for the wicked. Some of the worst bills.
Assembly Bill 482 by Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, D-Norwalk.
In its language, the "bill would prohibit an employer, with the exception of certain financial institutions, from obtaining a consumer credit report for employment purposes unless the information is substantially job-related," etc. Exceptions would be made for management, law enforcement and as required by law. The concern is that, especially with so many defaults during the recession and housing crash, worthy people with bad credit ratings could be kept from decent jobs. It passed in the Assembly and was scheduled to be heard June 29 in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
This is just more micromanagement of business, giving companies another reason to leave the state. And if the government still would be allowed to use credit checks for law enforcement, why not companies with mission-critical jobs? If, say, a company’s hot-shot computer programmer has a record of flaking out on mortgages and moving around the country, why shouldn’t that be a consideration on whether to hire him?
Senate Bill 810 by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco.
It imposes a huge new state bureaucracy, the California Healthcare System, which the bill says would be "a single-payer health care system that will provide coverage for which all 37 million Californians would be eligible." It passed the Senate and was scheduled to be heard in the Assembly Health Committee on June 29.
The Obamacare legislation still is only a few months old and mostly won’t be implemented until 2014. It’s supposed to guarantee coverage for all Americans. At 2,400 pages, nobody knows what it actually will do or cost. Any major change by California, such as SB810, would only compound the confusion. We also oppose both so-called "reforms" because they set up vast new bureaucracies that, as critics say, will have the efficiency of the U.S. Postal Service and the bedside manner of the DMV.
AB 846 by Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, D-Newark.
In the bill’s wording, it "requires" state agencies involved in enforcing "environmental, health, and workplace safety laws" on businesses yearly to increase fines to take inflation into account. It also requires that the fines be raised "at a minimum" to a level that "recovers any economic benefits derived by the violator." The agencies would determine what the "economic benefits" are. The bill was to be heard this week in the Senate’s committee on government organization.
The bill would give state agencies vast new bureaucratic controls over businesses. Even minor violations of the state’s labyrinthine business regulations could lead to massive fines to "recover any economic benefits," etc. This bill is so onerous it should include plane tickets to Texas, which is where the businesses will locate.
AB 2492 by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco
This is a direct assault on the Proposition 13, which currently limits property taxes to 1 percent of full cash value at the time of purchase, plus increases of no more than 2 percent per year. When a company owns property, if the company is taken over or merges, currently that is not considered a sale of property. This bill would change that to create a "change-of-ownership" reassessment of the property if, within three years, 100 percent of the property interest changes from "among other things, a merger, acquisition, private-equity buyout, or transfer of partnership shares in a business." The bill was pending before the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Prop. 13 is the most popular initiative in California history because it gives predictability to property taxes evaluations. It also gives equal valuations, and tax levies, on residential and business property, thus not favoring one over the other. If businesses are taxed more, zoning laws will favor them to get government the higher tax revenue, thus squeezing out new housing and making the state housing shortage even worse. Finally, cracking part of Prop. 13 could lead to an eventual assault on the whole measure, threatening residential owners. And higher taxes would mean businesses would have less money to create jobs.
We urge the Legislature to oppose all these jobs-killer bills. If it passes any of them – and there are many more than we can list – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should veto them. High unemployment should not be made higher.
Central Valley Callout! 