This Friday, August 28 is last day for the appropriations committees to meet and send bills to the floor.

• SB 3 (Leno; D-San Francisco/ Leyva; D-Chino) Automatic Minimum Wage Increase — Unfairly increases employers’ costs while ignoring the economic factors or other costs of employers by increasing the minimum wage by $3.00 over the next two and a half years with automatic increases tied to inflation. On Assembly Appropriations Committee Suspense File.
• SB 32 (Pavley; D-Agoura Hills) Slows Economic Growth — Increases costs for California businesses, makes them less competitive and discourages economic growth by adopting further greenhouse gas emission reductions for 2030 and 2050 without regard to the impact on individuals, jobs and the economy. On Assembly Appropriations Committee Suspense File.
• SB 350 (de León; D-Los Angeles) Costly and Burdensome Regulations — Potentially increases costs and burdens on all Californians by mandating an arbitrary and unrealistic reduction of petroleum use by 50%, increasing the current Renewable Portfolio Standard to 50% and increasing energy efficiency in buildings by 50% — all by 2030 without regard to the impact on individuals, jobs and the economy. On Assembly Appropriations Committee Suspense File.
• SB 406 (Jackson; D-Santa Barbara) Significant Expansion of California Family Rights Act — Increases costs, risk of litigation and less conformity with federal law by dramatically reducing the employee threshold from 50 to at least 25 employees and expanding the family members for whom leave may be taken, which will provide a California-only, separate 12-week protected leave of absence for both small and large employers to administer. On Assembly Appropriations Committee Suspense File.
• SB 654 (de León; D-Los Angeles) Creates Unworkable Hazardous Waste Permitting Process —  Discourages investment in upgrading and improving hazardous waste facilities by shutting down hazardous waste facilities if the Department of Toxic Substances Control fails to take final action on the permit renewal application within a specified timeframe, even if the permit applicant acted diligently and in good faith throughout the permit application process. On Assembly Appropriations Committee Suspense File.

Job Killer on Senate Floor

A sixth job killer bill that if enacted could significantly drive up litigation costs for all California employers as well as increase pressure on the already-overburdened judicial system is already on the Senate Floor.

AB 465 (R. Hernández; D-West Covina) precludes mandatory employment arbitration agreements, which is likely pre-empted by the Federal Arbitration Act. The bill will serve only to increase litigation costs of individual claims, representative actions and class action lawsuits against California employers of all sizes until such legislation can work through the judicial process to be challenged once again.

Action Needed

CalChamber is urging businesses to contact their Senate and Assembly representatives and ask them to vote no on AB 465, SB 3,SB 32, SB 350, SB 406, and SB 654.