The Southwest California Legislative Council has published its 8th annual Legislator Report Card showing how our local legislators voted on business bills affecting our region. This year the Council adopted positions on 107 state bills as well as a number of federal issues. Of the 107, the Council SUPPORTED 41 bills and expressed our OPPOSITION to another 66 as being damaging to some sector of our local economy or just outright JOB KILLERS. Just 14 bills made it through the entire process in a form relatively similar to when they started, 7 we SUPPORTED and 7 we OPPOSED.
Bills the Council SUPPORTED include SB21 (Roth), a bill that seeks to identify and retain local physicians attending the UCR Medical School as well as providing an ongoing $15 million funding source for the program; AB1257 (Bocanegra), a bill to require the Energy Commission to identify strategies to maximize the benefits obtained from natural gas as an energy source; AB116 (Bocanegra), a bill extending the expiration date for approved subdivision maps allowing developers to use existing approvals without incurring additional time and costs to build new homes now that the economy has turned in their favor; SB401 (Hueso), a bill requiring state agencies that propose building standards to include the estimated cost of compliance and the potential benefits of the regulation and the related assumptions used in determining that estimate (an agency can’t just make it up anymore because it sounds good); AB227 (Gatto), a bill modifying the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Proposition 65) to require a person filing an enforcement action to actually notify the alleged violator, prohibit them from extorting moneys and provides a 14 day grace period for corrective action; AB633 (Salas), a bill that would prohibit an employer from having a policy prohibiting an employee from providing voluntary emergency medical services including cardiopulmonary resuscitation if rendered in good faith at the scene of an emergency; and AB 1400, a committee bill that allows exporters to utilize electronic methods to submit requests and expedites approvals for previously approved exports so they don’t have to go through the whole process every time they make a new shipment.
Bills the Council OPPOSED include AB10 (Alejo), the minimum wage bill that will reduce employment opportunities for lower wage workers while increasing the burden on small businesses; SB7 (Steinberg), a bill that seeks to extort prevailing wage and other concessions from Charter Cities; and SB4 (Pavley), the only bill of 5 seeking to eliminate or restrict the use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) that made it through. While it did pass and was signed by the Governor, the bill had been significantly amended and weakened to require studies of the process, application of a permit (already done) and other reporting data.
Senators Anderson and Emmerson voted with the Council on all 14 bills scoring 100% while Senator Roth voted with the Council 80% of the time. Assemblymembers Melendez, Waldron and Jones also concurred with the Council 100% of the votes while Assemblymembers Nestande and Linder disagreed on the fracking bill bringing their concurrence to 93%. Governor Brown signed all 7 bills we SUPPORTED, vetoed two bills we OPPOSED and signed 5 for a rating of 64%. Last year the Governor voted with us 62% of the time and has consistently scored higher on business friendly bills than his predecessor, who customarily scored in the mid-50’s.
The Southwest California Legislative Council appreciates our local legislators who have consistently voted in favor of reducing the tax and regulatory burden on California businesses. Southwest county typically elects more fiscally conservative legislators who, even in the face of overwhelming odds as a super-minority, seek to do the right thing to bring jobs to our beleaguered state. You can find the entire vote record at http://southwestca.biz/