The 2021 Job Killer List is Out and it’s Bad
Forced unionization, housing development bans, tax increases, more government regulation
By Katy Grimes, March 29, 2021 6:58 am
The California Chamber of Commerce recently published its annual Job Killer list of bad legislation, many of which have been highlighted by the Globe. Bills make the list if they would place California employers and the state’s economy in harm’s way should they become law.
Their 2021 Job Killer list is long. As Cal Chamber explains, “Of particular concern, according to CalChamber, are proposed labor and employment mandates which would hit small business employers especially hard as they attempt to recover from losses experienced due to pandemic-related shutdowns.”
“Many of these bills—particularly the labor and employment ones—seem to be solutions in search of a problem,” said CalChamber President and CEO Allan Zaremberg.
For the businesses which managed to survive California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s year+ long lockdown and are teetering on the edge of a precipice, many of these bills could issue the final blow – higher taxes, mandatory paid leave expansion, or increased workers compensation costs.
Here are a some of the bills:
Labor and Employment Mandates
AB 616 (Stone; D-Scotts Valley) Forced Unionization Process for Agricultural Employees: Limits an employee’s ability to independently and privately vote for unionization in the workplace, by essentially eliminating a secret ballot election and replacing it with the submission of representation cards signed by over 50% of the employees.
AB 995 (Gonzalez; D-San Diego) Costly Sick Leave Expansion on All Employers: Imposes new costs and leave requirements on employers of all sizes, by expanding the number of paid sick days employers are required to provide, which is in addition to all of the recently enacted leave mandates (COVID-19 sick leave, CalOSHA emergency paid time off, CFRA leave, workers’ compensation, etc.) that small employers throughout the state are already struggling with to implement and comply.
AB 95 (Low; D-Campbell) Burdensome New Bereavement Leave Mandate: Imposes a significant new burden on employers of every size by mandating that they provide employees bereavement leave upon the death of a spouse, child, parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, or domestic partner, regardless of how long the employee has worked for the employer.
AB 1041 (Wicks; D-Oakland) Significant Expansion of Family Leave and Paid Sick Leave: Significantly expands multiple existing leave requirements in California that apply to employers of five or more, including small employers with limited employee.
AB 1074 (Gonzalez; D-San Diego) Onerous Return to Work Mandate: Imposes an onerous and stringent process for specific employers to return employees to the workforce for specified industries, including hotels and restaurants that have been disproportionally impacted by this pandemic, which will delay rehiring and employers’ ability to re-open after being forced to close or reduce operations due to COVID-19.
SB 213 (Cortese; D-San Jose) Expands Costly Presumption of Injury: Significantly increases workers’ compensation costs for public and private hospitals by presuming certain diseases and injuries are caused by the workplace and establishes an extremely concerning precedent for expanding presumptions into the private sector.
Tax Increases
AB 71 (Rivas, L; D-Arleta) Massive Corporate Tax Increase: Significantly increases the state’s corporate tax rate and taxation on the gross income of international companies to create a homelessness fund, thereby shifting the responsibility of the crisis onto the private sector, despite the $15 billion dollars in unexpected revenue.
AB 1199 (Gipson; D-Carson) Targeted Tax on Homeowners: Unfairly imposes an excise tax on certain individual and corporate homeowners to pay for housing related services.
AB 1400 (Kalra; D-San Jose) Government-Run Health Care: Eliminates private insurance.
Housing
AB 1295 (Muratsuchi; D-Torrance) Housing Development Ban: Removes local land use authority and exacerbates the housing crisis by prohibiting cities and counties from entering into a residential development agreement in Very High Fire Severity Zones, which strips local communities of their land use authority and applies a one-size-fits all ban on development throughout large swaths of California.
SB 55 (Stern; D-Canoga Park) Housing Development Ban: Removes local land use authority by prohibiting any residential or commercial construction in either Very High Fire Severity Zones or State Responsibility Area, which effectively bans development activity in 1/3 of the state of California and will exacerbate the existing housing crisis.
SB 499 (Leyva; D-Chino) Housing Development Ban: Prohibits cities and counties from designating any land uses that have potential to adversely impact disadvantaged communities.
Government Regulation and Enforcement
SB 606 (Gonzalez; D-Long Beach) Expansion of Cal/OSHA Authority and Enforcement: Significantly expands CalOSHA authority by allowing it to multiply penalties potentially by 10x or 100x against employers, and shut down facilities that it has not even physically inspected.
SB 467 (Wiener; D-San Francisco) Oil and Gas Development Ban: Eliminates thousands of high-paying California jobs and requires California to import even more foreign oil by shutting down approximately 95% of oil and gas production in California.
See the entire list here.
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Thank you for this year’s Job Killer List. Makes one wish we didn’t even have a legislature. These people who call themselves Democrat lawmakers are worse than useless, they are actively harming us.
People need to step up and vote OUT all these Democrats. They’re destroying our state and our country!
Yes, would love to see it happen! A LOT of Californians have awakened over this past COVID Year of Doom to see the harm — no, actually the DEVASTATION — done by this mega-majority Dem legislature, never mind the Dem state office-holders and Dem mayors. And then there are the unelecteds who are appointed by and who surround these destructive people. Etc….
TINVYWOOT*
There Is No Voting Your Way Out Of This. Voting is two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner.
Exactly! “DO NO HARM” should be in a pledge when these job killing elitists take office. The long list of job killers reveal that is not a priority.
Cali Girl, I think the good news is that a lot of people have finally awakened to see what this Democrat legislature has done to them. They are not serving the people of California, only “special interests,” most of which have no connection to average citizens’ lives, well-being, and happiness. Hope we’ll see some results from that awakening.
Gee look – not a single Republican amongst them…
Wake the HELL up California and STOP electing these dangerous LIARS who are literally KILLING YOUR LIVELIHOODS!!!
The only good Democrat is a DEAD Democrat! Put a bounty on the bastards!
Call it what is is: Democrat=Liberal=Progressive=Communist. Pinochet had the right idea.
(Gonzalez; D-San Diego) is one busy (insert pronoun of choice here).
Speedy Gonzalez
Gonzalez is a WORTHLESS (insert pronoun of choice here)
This woman is one of the WORST things to ever hit California legislation…
Dumber than dirt & ZERO real-world leadership or business experience….
You know what’s killing businesses? For-profit health insurance premiums that go up and up and up.
AB 1400 is a breath of fresh air.
Chumps
Do you deserve this…..
Geez am I EVER glad I’m retiring to Wyoming in 3 months…