A number of California Chamber of Commerce-opposed “job killer” bills are likely dead for the year, having missed the legislative deadline to pass from policy committees to fiscal committees in the house in which they were introduced.

Costly Workplace Mandates

• AB 1138 (Chau; D-Alhambra) Massive Exposure to Civil Penalties and Liabilities  —Inappropriately increases civil cases and civil penalties on employers by permitting civil action against those employers who fail to conspicuously post a list of every employee covered under an employer’s workers’ compensation insurance policy and to retain this list for five years. Note: Amendments to the bill on April 16 led to removal of its “job killer” status, but the CalChamber still opposed the proposal.
• SB 626 (Beall; D-San Jose) Massive Workers’ Compensation Cost Increase—Unravels many of the employer cost-saving provisions in last year’s workers’ compensation reform package and results in employers paying nearly $1 billion in benefit increases to injured workers without an expectation that the increases will be fully offset by system savings.

Economic Development Barriers

• AB 59 (Bonta; D-Alameda) Split Roll Parcel Tax—Potentially increases the tax burden on businesses by permitting local agencies to assess a higher parcel tax on commercial property than residential property overturning an appellate decision that determined such taxes were unconstitutional.
• AB 823 (Eggman; D-Stockton) Infrastructure—Adds additional costs and hurdles to critically needed new infrastructure and development projects by imposing unreasonable mitigation requirements.

Expensive, Unnecessary Regulations

• SB 747 (DeSaulnier; D-Concord) Unnecessary New Regulatory Scheme—Establishes a new, duplicative, and burdensome program that requires the Department of Public Health to regulate manufacturers of consumer products that the department determines contribute to a significant public health epidemic (i.e., obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease) and allows the department to restrict or prohibit the sale of such products.