CCTA Watch List

Updates 2011-12 Legislative Session

(Update 5/2012)

We are in the second year of the two-year session which commenced on January 4th.  February 24th was the deadline for all bills to be formally introduced in 2012.   Approximately 1700 new bills were introduced in the few days prior to the deadline.  CCTA’s legislative team has closely analyzed each of these thousands of bills to determine the bill’s true impact upon our industry.  Out of that large pool of legislation, the team has identified those bills that need to be lobbied, including those bills that CCTA will support and those that we will oppose or request to be amended.  In addition to meeting with authors and Capitol staff behind the scenes, we will attend the policy and fiscal committees when each of the bills will be heard, and voice our concerns on those bills of interest to us.  For those bills that manage to make it through the Legislature, we will then communicate our concerns to the Governor’s office prior to him deciding whether to sign or veto the legislation.  June 1st is the next important legislative deadline as it is the last day for all bills to be passed out of their house of origin. 

SB 1092 by Senator Kevin de Leon (CCTA-sponsor).
This year CCTA is working to continue to refine the Broker Bill from 2010 (AB 145), which established a bonding requirement for all brokers of dump trucks in California.  Specifically, CCTA is working towards greater enforcement of the law in an effort to ensure 100% of all brokers in the state are in compliance.  This year’s bill, SB 1092, is designed to accomplish this by creating transparency and adding notification requirements to the existing broker bond.  By creating easier access to a copy of the bond, a subhauler will know up front if in fact they are contracting with a bonded broker.  Moreover, if they have already completed the work for the broker and have not been paid, they can easily access the bond information if they choose to file on the bond.   Specifically, the bill requires a construction trucking broker to do the following:

1. annually shall provide written evidence of the broker’s valid surety bond to a third-party nonprofit organization that is related to the industry and regularly maintains a published database of bonded brokers or post a current copy of the surety bond on the broker’s Internet Web site.  When a copy of the surety bond is provided to a third-party nonprofit organization, the broker shall notify the third-party nonprofit organization if at any time the surety bond is cancelled or expired.  When a copy of the surety bond is posted on the broker’s Internet Web site, the broker shall remove the surety bond from his or her Web site if at any time the surety bond is cancelled or expired.
   
   
2. provide, prior to the commencement of work each calendar year, written evidence of the broker’s valid surety bond to any person that hires, or otherwise engages the services of, the broker to furnish construction transportation services and also to the hired motor carrier of property. So far the bill has received overwhelming support in the Legislature and has not received a single “no” vote despite opposition to the bill from CTA.  On May 3rd, Senator de Leon touted the benefits of the bill on the Senate Floor and it was unanimously passed with bipartisan support, 36-0.  The bill will now head to the Assembly.  

AB 1099 by Assembly Member Lowenthal (CCTA-sponsor).
CCTA is also the proud co-sponsor of AB 1099 (Lowenthal).  The bill would prudently amend the Biennial Inspection of Terminals (BIT) Program to implement a performance-based inspection program, would shift the fee collection process to the DMV, and would expand the BIT Program to all motor carriers in California.   Specifically, CCTA believes that a performance-based inspection modeled off the nationwide inspection process used by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is a much more efficient and effective method for CHP’s inspection efforts.  Oftentimes today the CHP’s limited resources are being unnecessarily utilized by inspecting every truck terminal throughout the state every 25 months.  We believe that inspections should be prioritized in order to maximize their effectiveness.   AB 1099 wisely permits the CHP to establish a system whereby unsafe motor carriers, i.e.  “bad actors,” as well as new motor carriers are focused upon by the CHP.   Given the higher likelihood of dangerous driving from these two types of motor carriers, it is logical that they receive more attention and critique from the CHP.   Other truck terminals would still be required to be inspected not less than four years from their last inspection.

Additionally, CCTA believes AB 1099 sensibly shifts the fee collection responsibility from the CHP to the DMV and ties the BIT fees to the Motor Carrier Permit fees.  This ensures that all BIT fees are paid in order to renew the Motor Carrier Permit.   Additionally, the revised BIT fee schedule will actually result in lower BIT fees for the bulk of motor carriers in California.

The language was “gut-and-amended” into AB 1099, which is already in the second house.  The bill has been referred to the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee and will need to advance out of that committee by July 6th.  

AB 1888 by Assembly Member Mike Gatto (CCTA-watch)
Was introduced to allow commercial drivers to attend a commercial driver violator school to avoid a point count on the driver’s record.   However, the bill has been scaled back so that it now only applies to violations committed in a commercial driver’s personal cars (will be amended to also include motorcycles).  The amendments were taken to purportedly address the concerns about conflicting with federal law.  The provisions establishing requirements for the commercial driver violator schools were also removed.  The bill awaits a hearing in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. 

AB 1922 by Assembly Member Ricardo Lara (CCTA-watch)
The bill that proposed to exempt commercial vehicles from current CARB smoke testing requirements, is experiencing considerable difficulties at the Capitol.  Not surprisingly the environmental community opposed these efforts to phase out CARB’s smoke testing requirements and ultimately the bill has been amended to now attempt to clear up the timing confusion about when smoke testing is due each year.  Current regulations state that smoke testing must be completed “within 12 months of the previous test conducted.” (13 CCR section 2193).   The bill would now state that smoke testing must be completed “on or before December 31 of each year.”  The bill is scheduled to be heard next in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

SB 1230 by Senator Rod Wright (CCTA-support)
Unfortunately will not advance this session after being stalled by the environmentalists.  As you will recall, this is the SCCA-sponsored bill that would have required the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB) to develop a standard for the safe installation of diesel particulate filters on on-road diesel trucks and would have required these standards to be developed before fleet owners are required to install them.  According to the Senate Labor Committee’s analysis, CARB states that 25,000 VDECS have been installed in CA since 2002 and an additional 215,000 have come preinstalled on original equipment.  Of these devises, CARB stated that they are only aware of 15 or fewer cases where the devices have failed to the point where safety could have been an issue.

(As of 4-24-12)

CCTA has a proven track record of promoting and protecting the interests and practices of construction truck company owners large and small through its Legislative and Government Affairs program.  The second year of the two-year Sacramento legislative session commenced January 4th.  Initially the Legislature focused on bills that were already introduced in 2011, but had yet to pass out of their house of introduction.  The deadline for these bills to be passed by the first house was January 31st. 

February 24th was the deadline for all bills to be formally introduced in 2012.  Approximately 1,700 new bills were introduced in the few days prior to the deadline.  CCTA’s legislative team has closely analyzed each of these thousands of bills to determine the measure’s true impact upon our industry.  Out of that large pool of legislation, the team has identified those bills that need to be lobbied, including those bills that CCTA will support and those that we will oppose or request to be amended.  
In addition to meeting with authors and Capitol staff behind the scenes, we are attending the policy and fiscal committees when each of the bills will be heard, voicing your concerns on those bills of interest to your business.  For those bills that manage to make it through the Legislature, we will then communicate your concerns to the Governor’s office prior to his deciding whether to sign or veto the legislation.

This year CCTA will continue refining the Broker Bill from 2010 (AB 145), which established a bonding requirement for all brokers of dump trucks in California.  Specifically, CCTA will work towards greater enforcement of the law in an effort to ensure 100% of all brokers in the state are in compliance. 

Senator Kevin De Leon agreed to again carry CCTA’s legislation and introduced SB 1092 to promote greater compliance.  The bill would increase transparency and access to a construction trucking broker’s surety bond by adding the following provisions to Vehicle Code section 34510.5.  
This new law “Requires a Broker of Construction Trucking Services to either:

1)     Provide written evidence of the broker’s valid surety bond to a third-party nonprofit organization that is related to the industry and regularly maintains a published database of bonded brokers, or
2)     Post a current copy of the surety bond on the broker’s Internet Web site

When a copy of the surety bond is provided to a third-party nonprofit organization, the broker shall notify the third-party nonprofit organization if at any time the surety bond is cancelled or expired.  When a copy of the surety bond is posted on the broker’s Internet Web site, the broker shall remove the surety bond from his or her Web site if at any time the surety bond is cancelled or expired.  
Additionally, the bill requires a Broker of Construction Trucking Services to:

1)     Annually provide written evidence of the broker’s valid surety bond to anyone that hires, or otherwise engages the services of the broker to furnish construction transportation services, and

2)     Annually provide written evidence of the broker’s valid surety bond to a hired motor carrier of property.”

“Written evidence of the broker’s valid surety bond” includes a copy of the surety bond, a certificate of insurance, a continuation certificate, or other similar documentation originally issued from the surety that includes the surety and broker’s name, bond number, and effective and expiration dates.

SB 1092 On April 10th, the CCTA-sponsored SB 1092 (De Leon) unanimously advanced out of the Senate Transportation & Housing Committee with bipartisan support.  This was the first committee hearing for SB 1092, which is designed to increase transparency and access to a construction trucking broker’s surety bond by adding the disclosure provisions to Vehicle Code section 34510.5.  At the hearing long-time CCTA ally and author of the bill Senator Kevin De Leon introduced the bill, CCTA’s lobbyist Brooks Ellison explained the details of the bill for the committee, and CCTA’s Betty Plowman discussed how the bill will help CCTA’s members in the real world.  As Betty succinctly put it, “If you do the work, you should get paid what you are owed.”  The bill saw a broad range of additional support at the hearing, including testimony from the Teamsters and a multitude of contractor associations including the California Fence Contractors Association, Engineering Contractors Association, and the Marin Builders’ Association.  The only opposition was from the California Trucking Association.

The final vote count was 9-0. The bill will now head to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Additionally CCTA will be co-sponsoring a bill with CTA that will dramatically modify the BIT Program.  The concept, which will be likely amended into AB 1099 by Assembly Member Bonnie Lowenthal, would expand the BIT Program to all motor carriers in California (not just heavy-duty and certificated motor carriers). Under the new program, all BIT fees would be paid annually to the DMV with the Motor Carrier Permit and the fee amounts would be revised (and will actually result in lower BIT fees for the bulk of motor carriers in California). The CHP would continue to conduct BIT inspections, but all carriers would no longer need to be inspected every two years.  Instead only new motor carriers (companies within the first 18 months of operating commercial motor vehicles) or high risk motor carriers (as identified by a performance-based inspection program used by the FMCSA) would be immediately focused upon for inspections by the CHP.  All other “non-priority” terminals would not be required to be inspected less than four years since last inspected.  

Other bills of interest

The additional bills below represent the bulk of the bills that CCTA and its legislative team have been particularly active on since the Legislature resumed this month:

AB 812 by Assembly Member Fiona (CCTA-support) A CalCIMA bill that would authorize the Department of Transportation, by January 1, 2014, to establish specifications for the use of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) of up to 40% for hot mix asphalt mixes. The bill passed out of the Assembly with only two “no” votes and will next be heard in the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee.

AB 869 by Assembly Member Mike Davis (CCTA-watch) would provide that a fleet consisting of at least 25 vehicles (down from 50) qualifies for the DMV’s fleet registration program, which allows for multiyear registrations. The bill was held by the Assembly Appropriations Committee January 19th, and as the committee noted, the DMV would incur “substantial costs, potentially in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, mainly in the form of upfront computer programming costs. This bill is dead since it failed to pass to the Senate by the deadline.  We will continue to monitor all bills to see if the concept gets resurrected in another bill.

AB 1518 by Assembly Member Henry Perea (CCTA-watch) is a CalCIMA-sponsored bill that authorizes any weighmaster weighing any vehicle moving “construction materials, including, but not limited to, earth, stone, rock, sand, gravel, limestone, ready mixed concrete, cementitious materials, recycled construction materials, or asphalt paving materials” to use an unattended weighing system to weigh the vehicle and issue a weighmaster certificate.  The bill unanimously advanced out of the Assembly Business, Professions & Consumer Protection Committee in late March despite opposition from the California Agricultural Commissioners and Sealers Association (CACASA) who believe “The bill would define an unattended weighing system as an automated system not directly under the supervision of a weighmaster that meets the approval, testing, and sealing requirements specified in existing law.”  The bill will be heard next in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

AB 1888 by Assembly Member Mike Gatto (CCTA-watch) is a CTA-sponsored bill that would allow commercial drivers to attend a commercial driver violator school to avoid a point count on the driver’s record.  The bill is set to be heard in the Assembly Transportation Committee on April 9, 2012.

AB 1922 by Assembly Member Ricardo Lara (CCTA-support) is another CTA-sponsored bill that exempts commercial vehicles from current CARB smoke testing requirements. Under the bill, trucks with a GVWR of 14,000 pounds or higher with 2007 and newer model-year engines shall be exempt beginning January 1, 2013.  Also, any truck with a GVWR of 14,000 pounds or higher shall be exempt beginning January 1, 2023.  The bill is set to be heard in the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee on April 16, 2012. Owner-operators with one truck have never been required to smoke test.

SB 1230 by Senator Rod Wright (CCTA-support) is a SCCA-sponsored bill that requires the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB) to develop a standard for the safe installation of diesel particulate filters on on-road heavy-duty diesel trucks and busses by January 1, 2014.  It also requires the standards to be developed before fleet owners are required to install them.  The bill will be heard in the Senate Transportation & Housing Committee on April 11th.

SB 1362 by Senator Doug La Malfa (CCTA-support) provides exemptions to meal period requirements for commercial drivers and other persons who are employed in the transportation industry and are either (a) governed by specified federal and state regulations with regard to their hours of service, or (b) employed by a “motor carrier,” as defined by federal law, if compliance would commit the employer to a particular price, route, or service.
There are two things for certain this year in Sacramento. The first is the state planned to spend more money than it has and the second is there will be quite a few bills in the Legislature related to reform of California’s Americans with Disabilities Act law.

AB 1610 by Assemblyman Donald Wagner (Support). While bills similar to this one died in committee last year, it is important to continue to push for much-needed reform to California’s legal climate.

As many of you know there is a group of unscrupulous lawyers running around the State of California suing small businesses for ADA violations. AB 1610 would require a party to follow certain notice requirements before bringing legal action against a business for an alleged ADA violation. The bill would require that the owner, agent or other responsible party respond within 30 days with a description of the improvements to be made or with a rebuttal to the allegations. If the owner decides to move forward and fix the violations they would have 120 days to do so.

Some people keep saying that SB 1608, authored by State Senator Ellen Corbett and signed by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2008, has not had a chance to work and that SB 1608 is really the way we are going to fix this ADA lawsuit problem. Quite frankly, SB 1608 has nothing to do with fixing the state’s ADA lawsuit problem. All that legislation did was create a body to study the problem and report back to the Legislature. In the meantime the lawsuits have continued.

If businesses are not compliant with the ADA laws in this state or nation then let’s deal with that. Let’s create a master checklist and give businesses an opportunity to become compliant. If they do not, then we should proceed with litigation.

Cal Chamber Watch List

Select Committee on Job Creation for the New Economy - Right!

The “NEW” Select Committee on Job Creation for the New Economy (see story below). Just another phony-bologna PR attempt by dems to appear as if non-government jobs were important. Just how many of us can work for Silicon Valley, Hollywood, the coastal vacation industry and their Green Jobs Kingdom? The day, Jerry, Darrel and the boys and girls in Sacrament, and Feinstein and Boxer are really willing to look at cutting government waste, inefficiency and over regulation - will never come. That’s because it would force them to deal directly with things like junk science, big labor friends, entitlements and their own distorted progressive beliefs. It will never happen here – regardless of the unemployment rates in California!!

Today, most progressive politicians in the United States associate with the Democratic Party and especially the Green Party of the United States. In the US Congress there exists the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which is often in opposition to the more conservative Democrats, who form the Blue Dogs caucus. Some of the more notable progressive members of Congress have included Ted Kennedy, Russ Feingold,[7] Dennis Kucinich, Barney Frank, Alan Grayson, Bernie Sanders, Al Franken, John Conyers, John Lewis, Paul Wellstone and just about every political democrat (State and Federal) in California politics.

Talking jobs, but a litmus test looms

San Diego Union-Trib., 8-19-11

With California in its worst extended period of high unemployment since the Great Depression, the state’s Democratic leaders are finally talking jobs and the obstacles to job creation that are caused by excessive government regulation.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday named Michael Rossi, a retired Bank of America executive, as an unpaid jobs czar to advise on how to create jobs and to act as liaison between the administration, business and labor leaders. Senate President Darrell Steinberg last week said he would soon unveil measures to streamline permitting, eliminate duplicative state regulations and create some sort of standardized economic impact analysis to weigh the costs of new regulations. And two weeks ago, Assembly Speaker John Pérez announced he had named Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego, to chair a new legislative panel, the Select Committee on Job Creation for the New Economy. One of its goals is making it easier for businesses to form and expand.

This is all good news and a heartening change from the Sacramento norm. But the steady advance through the Legislature of bills such as AB 350 seems to belie the rhetoric.

The bill, introduced by Assemblyman Jose Solorio, D-Santa Ana, requires a building-services contractor to retain for 90 days the existing security guards, food-service workers, window cleaners, building engineers and other maintenance workers when it wins a contract to provide services in commercial, industrial and government buildings. Janitors already have such protections.
This measure is an extreme intrusion on the private sector. The quality of the work done by the present contractor is often why building managers decide to change service providers. This would require them to keep the same workers.

The 90-day retention period is also significant and explains why the Service Employees International Union is championing AB 350. Under federal law, if unionized workers stay with a new company for 90 days, the company is mandated to open union contract negotiations with the employees.

Defenders of the measure say blue-collar workers deserve job protections in these difficult times. We sympathize, but this bill, like others we have argued against on this page, is a perfect example of why CEOs consistently rank California as the least business-friendly state.

Nevertheless, Pérez was among the 46 Assembly Democrats voting for the bill, including local lawmakers Toni Atkins, Marty Block and Ben Hueso.

In the Senate, the measure won initial support from the Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations and goes Monday to the Appropriations Committee, chaired by Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego. Kehoe said Wednesday she sympathizes with the workers the bill would help.

Steinberg and Brown have yet to take a stand on AB 350. Here’s hoping that Steinberg lives up to his rhetoric by blocking this intrusive proposal. If he doesn’t, we hope Rossi’s first bit of advice to Brown will be to veto AB 350. And if you need some more bad legislative proof, here are “only” about 30 other examples of “Job Creation” by dems.

Bill Would Hike Calif. Workers Comp Costs
"AB 947 adds huge new payroll costs for private and public employers in California at the same time our 12% unemployment rate remains among the highest in the nation, and government is struggling to protect public services," said Thomas Vu, a lobbyist with the California Chamber of Commerce. "Workers' compensation costs per claim have increased by 60% in recent years driven partly by growth in (temporary disability) benefit payments. Workers' compensation claims already take longer to resolve in California and our system is more expensive than other states." The Orange County Register

Restaurateur Discusses Polystyrene Food Container Ban
Passage of SB 568 will increase his food packaging costs by 2-3 ties the current costs. Joe Thompson, owner of Gold Rush Grille and Crisp Catering in Sacramento, explains to KTTV in Los Angeles that the. Here are some other CalChamber goodies:

Costly Workplace Mandates

AB 10 (Alejo; D-Watsonville) Automatic Minimum Wage Increase
Creates uncertainty by imposing an automatic indexing of the minimum wage based on inflation that fails to take into account the current economic status of the state. Held in Assembly Appropriations 5/27/11; Failed deadline

AB 22 (Mendoza; D-Artesia) Hampers Employment Decisions
Unfairly limits private employers’ ability to use consumer credit reports for legitimate employment purposes, unless the information in the report is “substantially job-related” and for a “managerial position.”

AB 375 (Skinner; D-Berkeley) Expands Costly Presumptions
Increases workers’ compensation costs for public and private hospitals by presuming certain diseases and injuries are caused by the workplace.

AB 1155 (Alejo; D-Watsonville) Erodes Workers’ Comp Reforms
Increases costs and lawsuits in the workers' compensation system by eroding the apportionment provision that protects an employer from paying for disability that did not arise from work.

SB 104 (Steinberg; D-Sacramento) Increased Agricultural Costs
Attempts to limit employees’ 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, which leaves employees susceptible to coercion and manipulation by labor organizations. Vetoed.

SB 129 (Leno; D-San Francisco) Employee Safety Risk
Undermines employers' ability to provide a safe and drug-free workplace by establishing a protected classification for employees who utilize medical marijuana. Held on Senate Inactive File

SB 829 (DeSaulnier; D-Concord) Undermines Employer Rights
Undermines employer rights in California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) citations by allowing private parties to interfere with the appeals process which could impose significant costs on employers, the Cal/OSHA Appeals Board and on Cal/OSHA.

Economic Development Barriers

AB 448 (Ammiano; D-San Francisco) Split Roll Property Tax
Undermines the protections of Proposition 13 by redefining the term “change of ownership” for legal entities so that reassessment of such property occurs when, cumulatively, there is a transfer of 100% of the ownership interests in a rolling three-year period.

AB 832 (Ammiano; D-San Francisco) Hidden Tax Increase
Imposes a hidden tax on software with a majority vote bill by making it virtually impossible for the owner to show that the software is eligible for a property tax exemption. Held on Assembly Inactive File

AB 1130 (Skinner; D-Berkeley) Small Business Tax Increase
Targeted tax increase on higher income brackets, which will have a detrimental impact on small start-up businesses and discourage growth of such companies in California.

AB 1239 (Furutani; D-South Los Angeles County) Small Business Tax Increase
Targeted tax increase on higher income brackets, which will have a detrimental impact on small start-up businesses and discourage growth of such companies in California.

SB 237 (Wolk; D-Davis) Climate Change Tax Increase
Increases costs and discourages job growth by implementing unlimited fees and taxes under a cap-and-trade system. Held in Senate Appropriations in Suspense File 5/02/11; Failed Deadline

SB 246 (De León; D-Los Angeles) Discourages Emission Reductions
Prohibits finding the most cost effective ways to reduce emissions, creates uncertainty and significantly increases business costs by imposing new and excessively burdensome requirements on the development and use of compliance offsets in a cap-and-trade program under AB 32. Held in Senate Appropriations Suspense File 5/26/11; Failed Deadline

SB 508 (Wolk; D-Davis) Discourages Investment
Creates uncertainty for California employers making long-term investment decisions by requiring all future tax credits to sunset after seven years. "Job killer" provision amended, but CalChamber still opposes.

SB 535 (De León; D-Los Angeles) Climate Change Tax Increase
Increases costs and discourages job growth by implementing unlimited fees and taxes under a cap-and-trade system.

SB 653 (Steinberg; D-Sacramento) Multiple Tax Increases
Creates uncertainty by providing 58 counties and over 1,000 school districts, subject to voter approval, the authority to impose and/or increase a tax on all products and services. Senate Third Reading 5/31/11

SBX 123 (Committee on Budget & Fiscal Review) Multiple Tax Increases
Mischaracterized “budget trailer bill” that is not necessary to implement the state budget. Rather, this bill creates uncertainty for taxpayers by providing 58 counties, over 70 community college districts, and over 1,000 school districts, subject to voter approval, the authority to impose and/or increase a local tax on all products and services.

Employee Benefit Mandates

AB 59 (Swanson; D-Alameda) Family and Medical Leave Expansion
Creates an increased burden on employers and makes a California-only mandated benefit different than the federal family leave act by significantly expanding the category of individuals with serious health conditions for whom an employee can take a leave of absence. Held in Assembly Appropriations Suspense File 5/27/11; Failed Deadline

AB 325 (B. Lowenthal; D-Long Beach) Unpaid Bereavement Leave
Adds to California’s reputation of being an overly litigious state by creating a private right of action and mandating an employer to provide an employee with up to three days of unpaid bereavement leave.

AB 400 (Ma; D-San Francisco) Paid Sick Leave Mandate
Unreasonably expands both public and private employers’ costs and liability by mandating employers to provide paid sick leave for employees. Held in Assembly Appropriations Suspense File 5/27/11; Failed Deadline

Expensive, Unnecessary Regulatory Burdens

AB 52 (Feuer; D-Los Angeles) Rate Regulation
Imposes implementation fees on health insurers to support additional bureaucracy and to regulate rates without addressing the costs that drive the rates.

AB 638 (Skinner; D-Berkeley) Increased Transportation Costs
Increases costs on consumers and business by mandating an unrealistic reduction of petroleum fuel consumption with an unrealistic increase in alternative fuel consumption to 15% below 2003 levels by 2020. Held in Assembly Appropriations Suspense File 5/27/11; Failed Deadline

SB 761 (Lowenthal; D-Long Beach) Regulatory Burden
Creates an unnecessary, unenforceable and unconstitutional regulatory burden on Internet commerce by indirectly regulating virtually all businesses that collect, use or store information from a website. Held in Senate Appropriations Suspense File 5/10/11; Failed Deadline

Inflated Liability Costs

AB 559 (Swanson; D-Oakland) Undermines Judicial Discretion
Unreasonably increases business litigation costs by limiting judicial discretion to reduce or deny exorbitant attorneys fees in fair employment and housing claims that should have been raised in a limited civil proceeding.

AB 1062 (Dickinson; D-Sacramento) Undermines Efficient Dispute Resolution
Dramatically increases litigation costs for employers by eliminating the right to appeal a court order denying or dismissing a petition to compel arbitration, driving more cases into the courts.

AB 1208 (C. Calderon; D-Montebello) Court Inefficiency
Creates uncertainty, inefficiency and unpredictability for litigants, further aggravating California’s reputation as a bad place to do business, by decentralizing control of trial court funds. Assembly Third Reading 5/27/11

SB 111 (Yee; D-San Francisco) New Lawsuits Against Small Business
Before amendments, could have resulted in new shakedown lawsuits against business establishments by making it a strict liability violation of the Unruh Civil Rights Act, subject to minimum damages of $4,000, if a business limits the use of a customer's language, even if unintentionally. Amended to remove opposition.