Thank you to the almost 500 guests that joined with me in honoring this year's 63 Women of Distinction!

We gathered this last Friday at the Double Tree Hotel in Ontario to commend this year's Women of Distinction on their tireless service to our community. 

A special thank you to Senator Bill Emmerson for serving as our MC for the luncheon.  Remember to check back soon - more information on the remarkable women will be emailed and available on my website.

While I have the good fortune of sitting as the Vice Chair of the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee, it was another bad month for Californians as I watched bad bill after bad bill pass out of committee without a single hesitation.  I would like to share some examples of this egregious legislation introduced by some of my colleagues in the Majority Party.

First, AB 2573, the unionization of babysitters. This bill imposes exorbitant costs on hard-working parents and single moms by forcing their child care givers to join a union and pay dues with which they will have no say in how they are spent.  In other words, this bill will force union membership on workers whether they want it or not, and force an employee-employer relationship among family members simply trying to help each other out in a struggling economy. Just think-grandma might be shut down....

AB 2517  is not only a job-killer, but will cause additional harm to our already struggling real estate industry.  This bill authorizes a car wash employee to file a lien against an employer's real property or property that the employee worked on in order to collect unpaid wages. In other words, if an employee washes your car and feels they were paid unfairly they can put a lien on their boss's home or even on your car! Shockingly, the author wants this lien to take precedent over a first or second trust deed (on a person's home).  This will limit banks' desire to provide home loans in California, placing a further strain on our recovery.  There is already a long list of laws protecting our employees; California's business climate has really dried up lending in California, and the real estate industry, which accounts for 24% of our economy, cannot take another blow.

The last example is AB 2217, presented by another democrat.  This bill requires a business that relocates a call center to any location within or outside of the state to "inform" the Department of Industrial Relations within 30 days.  We are now requiring businesses to report to the government their plans before they complete them? In addition, we are now trying to regulate beyond our borders.  According to this bill, upon request, a customer service representative shall transfer a customer to a call center located within the United States.  This bill is just one more example of a union-driven regulation that will force jobs and businesses out of California, and is a testament to the overreaching philosophies guiding our state. 

It was another tough day for the free economy.  Progressivism runs deep in California and unemployment will continue while our recovery lags behind other states beginning to thrive again.  Here is the good news: as I speak to voters across the state, they are keeping a closer eye on the government and are working to protect their liberties and guard against continued overreaching. 

We only have to move the dial a little bit - a few steps at a time by persuading our neighbors to exercise their civic responsibility vigorously and encourage involvement.  Even though small business owners have the most to lose, and therefore, the most to gain by getting involved, only 52% of them actually vote.  The same applies to people of faith - we are only 28% of those who vote.  We must get motivated to return California to the Golden State, to work to upgrade the quality of our elected officials, and to elect representatives who are committed to protecting our freedoms, not big government. This is our state- lets take it back!

After the release of Governor Brown's May Revision to his January buget proposal, here are the real facts and statistics straight from the source:

• The Governor estimates the budget deficit at $15.7 billion
• Even with a growing deficit, the Governor has still increased spending from $85.9 billion last year to $91.4 billion for the 2012-13 fiscal year ($5.5 billion increase)
• The proposed budget includes $8.3 billion in cuts although $1.8 billion of those "cuts" are funding shifts from one source to another
• The Governor's budget relies on voters to enact a $8.5 billion annual tax increase to support his new spending and threatens to cut $5.5 billion from education if we say no

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