Job Creator Bills

California's Jobs Problem

Like much of the U.S., California still finds itself navigating out of the economic downturn that cost millions of Americans their jobs, their businesses, and their homes. Unlike the rest of the country, however, California's recovery is slow with the end barely in sight.

Take a look at the facts:

  • California's unemployment rate is 9.6 percent (1.8 million Californians unemployed) as of February 2013, which is considerably higher than the national rate of 7.7%. The state's unemployment rate is tied for the worst in the nation.
  • The number of people unemployed in California was 1,792,000.
  • California manufacturing continues to struggle – while other sectors have shown some signs of recovery, the state lost 6,800 manufacturing jobs over the past twelve months.
  • According to CNBC's "America's Top States for Business 2012," California ranked 48th among the 50 states for the cost of doing business and 43rd for business friendliness.
  • For the eighth year in a row, CEO's rated California as the worst state to do business in Chief Executive magazine.
  • The nonpartisan Tax Foundation ranks California as having the third-worst business tax climate in the U.S.

These statistics may paint a bleak picture of California's economic situation, but the trend is not irreversible - if the Legislature makes job creation a priority again. The solution to California's economic problems is to attract more businesses to the state and give companies incentives to create more jobs. 

Assembly Republicans Propose Pro-Jobs Reforms

Every year, legislators in Sacramento introduce bills that aim to ease the tax burden on job creators, lower the cost of doing business to make California more competitive for job creation, and provide regulatory relief to small businesses. 

Policies like these will make lasting and meaningful changes to California's unemployment rate.  They will empower individuals and entrepreneurs to expand their businesses and reduce the reliance on creating more government jobs.

Several bills have been introduced this session to encourage job growth in California, including: 

Assembly Bill 146 (Gorell) - Economic development: enterprise zones- Establishes an enterprise zone in the Port Hueneme harbor district in Oxnard.  An enterprise zone provides a number of incentives to spur local economic development and infrastructure in higher-than-average unemployment areas.

Assembly Bill 167 (Hagman) -- Unfair competition: private enforcement actions- Defines the injury in fact required for a private person to bring suit under the provision of Unfair Competition compliant to prove damages suffered by each individual plaintiff or member of a class amounting to at least $500, adjusted for inflation. The bill would also provide that it shall become effective only when submitted to, and approved by, the voters of California.

Assembly Bill 228 (Logue) -- Labor Commissioner: employee claims- Requires the Labor Commissioner to issue a 30 day warning to a business before issuing a fine.

Assembly Bill 293 (Allen) -- Energy: California Clean Energy Jobs Act: implementation- Requires the PUC and other agencies develop a program for allocating Prop 39 Clean Energy funds.

Assembly Bill 337 (Allen) –Economic development: international trade and investment strategy- Currently, GOBIZ (Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development) is creating a strategy for improving California’s position in international trade and investment. This bill requires an additional evaluation of the ports of entry to the state and their capacity for handling international trade.

Assembly Bill 376 (Donnelly) -- Regulations: notice- Requires any state agency enforcing a regulation to notify all businesses affected.

Assembly Bill 412 (Allen) –International trade- Requires GOBIZ to submit a study on potential roles of California in global markets to the Legislature. Study would include recommendations for priorities of state activities and funding related to international trade and investment.

Assembly Bill 519 (Logue) -- Unfair competition- Requires plaintiffs suing businesses for code violations to prove damage was actually done to them

Assembly Bill 648 (Gorell) -- Energy management plans for harbor and port districts- Stabilizes long term energy costs for California’s ports, which is an important factor in maintaining the competitive edge against other ports, including those in Mexico.

Assembly Bill 756 (Melendez) -- CEQA: Judicial Review - This bill would apply that an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment these provisions to a public works project, defined to mean an infrastructure project carried out by the city, county, or state government or contracted out to a private entity by the local or state government.

Assembly Bill 794 (Gorell) -- Environmental quality: California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: use of landfill and organic waste- Exempts biogenic energy projects from burdensome environmental requirements, which can greatly delay the development of cutting-edge facilities that benefit the environment and the local economy.

Assembly Bill 866 (Linder) -- Regulations – Reforms the current regulatory process to include business in the regulatory process and ensuring an economic analysis is completed for every major regulation proposed, allowing California to move forward with as much information possible.

Assembly Bill 886 (Allen) – California Transportation Financing Authority: tax credit certificates for exporters and importers: income tax credit- Expresses the intent of the Legislature to enact Legislation that would address issues that enhance and expand business opportunities and trade in Latin America.

Assembly Bill 887 (Allen) –State government: regulations: economic analysis- Makes technical changes to the Office of Administrative Law which reviews regulatory actions taken by agencies.

Assembly Bill 907 (Conway) -- Flexible work schedules -- This bill would permit an individual nonexempt employee to request an employee-selected flexible work schedule providing for workdays up to 10 hours per day within a 40-hour workweek, and would allow an employer to implement this schedule without the obligation to pay overtime.

Assembly Bill 1201 (Allen) – International trade- Expresses the intent of the Legislature to enact Legislation that would address issues that enhance and expand business opportunities and trade with the European Union and other nations.

Assembly Bill 1294 (Grove) -- Public works: civil wage and penalty assessments- Existing law defines the term “public works” for purposes of requirements regarding the payment of prevailing wages, the regulation of working hours, and the securing of workers’ compensation for public works projects. This bill would require the Labor Commissioner to prove that the basis for the civil wage and penalty assessment is correct.

Assembly Bill 1302 (Hagman) -- Environmental quality: the Sustainable Environmental Protection Act- Will make changes to reform abuse of the CEQA process.

Assembly Bill 1326 (Gorell) -- Sales and use taxes: exemptions: unmanned aerial vehicle manufacturing: income taxes: credits: hiring- Provides a 3-fold incentive that positions California to be the central hub of the UAV manufacturing industry which will create well-paying jobs for middle class families. 

Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1 (Donnelly) -- Administrative regulations: legislative approval- Requires any state agency to submit all regulations to the Legislature for approval.

 

These proposals all take California in the right direction and help bring jobs back to the state. 

Should Sacramento enact these bills, not only will more Californians be able to support their families, but they will create more revenue to fill the perpetual shortfalls in the state budget.