State Bureaucracy/Non-Compete Agreements

Small Business California is always looking for state bureaucratic procedures that hurt small business.  Yesterday I got a call from a contractor who was having problems with the Contractors State License Board CSLB.  The CSLB has a website that lists all licensed contractors and includes their workers compensation insurance company and policy dates.  This contractor had a renewal of their workers compensation Oct 1, 2014 and was with State Fund.  His broker on September 24^th sent a certificate on an industry form called in the industry the Accord certificate. The CSLB accepts this form for all insurance companies except State Fund.

State Fund does not send out certificates for anyone including the CSLB until usually a few days after the renewal date, in this case Oct 7. It then takes at least one week but usually two weeks for the CSLB to show this on their website and until they do the website will show that they have not renewed the workers compensation policy.  The contractor that called me said he lost a job of about $25000 because his client checked the CSLB website and it showed the expiration of his workers compensation Oct 1.

This is absurd and the solution is simple; they simply should accept the Accord certificate like they do every other workers compensation company in the state.
Small Business California is working on getting this corrected and we will let you know in a later email what happens.  Are any contractors out there experiencing this problem?

California has taken a very dim view of Non-Compete clauses in an employer/employee contract. This has made it very difficult for employers to enforce.  Have any of you had problems in this area?

Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA  94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188 

Community Stakeholders Meeting

I am the Vice Chair of the California Commission on Disabled Access. Please see below an event we are doing Oct 21.   For those of you in the LA area I hope you will consider attending.

 

Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA  94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188 

Updates on our Senate Members

From our Government  Affairs person,  Lori Kammerer:

Senator Kevin DeLeon (D-Los Angeles) is the new Pro Tem of the Senate and takes office on October 16^th.

Senate members who are termed-out include Senators Calderon, Corbett, Correa, Padilla, Steinberg, Wyland and Yee.  Senator Wright has resigned and Senators Desaulnier, Knight, Lieu and Torres are running for Congress.  Senator Gaines is running for Insurance Commissioner.  Senator Noreen Evans decided not to run for another term.  A total of 9 Senators will be replaced for certain and if the remaining 5 Senators win their elections, we will have a total of 9 new members who will likely be re-elected.    

Assembly Member Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) is the Speaker of the Assembly and was elected last June.

In the Assembly, 16 members are termed-out including Assembly Members Ammiano, Bradford, Buchanan, Chesbro, Conway, Fong, Hagman, Hall, Harkey, Logue, Lowenthal, Nestande, J. Perez, V. M. Perez, Skinner and Yamada.  Assemblymembers Donnelly and Gorrell left their seats for a run for Governor and Congress, respectively, so there will be 2 new members in these districts.

The 2015-16 biennial session will officially commence with the swearing-in of new members in both houses on Monday, December 1^st.  The first day of the Legislative Session begins on Monday, January 5^th with at least 14 new Senators and  20 or so new Assembly Members.  With the exception of two or three races (Donnelly and Gorrell), most districts are considered “safe” wins for the incumbents.  Therefore, we can expect that the district positions, in terms of political philosophies and issue priorities of new and existing members, will likely stay the same.  
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Lori C. Kammerer
Kammerer & Company
1215 K Street, 17^th Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814
Office: (916) 441-5674
Cell: (916) 716-5674
LCK@midtown.net


Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA  94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188 

Legislation

Session has closed in Sacramento.  Small business did not do very well last session seeing SB 610[ Franchisee protection] and AB 1399[ New Markets Tax Credit] vetoed by the Governor and our Crowd Funding Bill 2096 bill was killed in Senate Appropriations.
It is now time to plan for  next session.
We are looking at reintroducing SB 610 and AB 2096.  What are your ideas for bills?  We are looking for bills that will have an impact on small businesses around California. One idea that has come up is requiring state agencies to send out billings for license renewals and fees.  Currently the state has said that they will make every effort to do so but it is the business owners responsibility to keep track of the due dates and make payment. Has this been a problem for any of you?  It was a problem for me in renewing my insurance license but I am not sure how widespread a problem it is for others.

Proposition 45 and 46 will be on the ballot in November.  Proposition 45 will allow the Insurance Commissioner to set health insurance rates.  Proposition 46 will require testing of doctors for drug and alcohol.  It also will take the $250,000 cap off malpractice lawsuits for pain and suffering and increase it to around $1 million.  Small Business California has not taken a position on these Propositions as we don’t take positions on state propositions or candidates.
What do you think of these two Propositions?  Do you think Small Business California should take positions on State Propositions or Candidates?  We are a 501c6 nonprofit entity.


Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA  94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188 

SB 610

Please read Editorial from NY Times on SB610 which Small Business California has been working so hard on. Thank you Debbie Nosowsky for sending to me.


When he vetoed a bill this week that would have strengthened the legal rights of franchisees in dealings with their corporate owners, Gov. Jerry Brown of California condoned an economic status quo that squeezes small businesses and low-wage workers even as corporate profits rise.

Of course, he did not put it that way. In a statement explaining his veto, the governor echoed the bill’s mainly Republican opponents, saying there was inadequate evidence of unacceptable or predatory practices by corporate franchisers to warrant a new law.

That assertion, however, ignores ample evidence of just such practices. Even before the California Legislature took up the issue, developments in contract and antitrust law over nearly 20 years had given corporations ever more control over franchisees. In the last two years, California lawmakers in multiple committees heard extensive testimony from both sides of the issue, which was openly debated in the Legislature in addition to being the subject of press coverage and heavy lobbying.

The picture that emerged is one in which many if not most corporate franchise agreements extract heavy fees, royalties and other payments, while leaving franchisees with little if any say over business operations and, by extension, how much they can afford to pay their workers. At a hearing last June, a McDonald’s franchisee who supported the bill told legislators that corporate overseers had told her that she was paying employees “too much,” and that she could make more money — for herself and the corporation — by paying them less.

The California bill — by giving franchisees a bigger say in the operation, closure, sale and transfer of their businesses — would have been an improvement. It also would have propelled change elsewhere, because California is so big and influential. Still, change will come, if for no other reason than that the current hardships inflicted on small businesses and hourly workers are untenable. The questions are when change will come and from where.


Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA  94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188 

Hospital Cost/ SB 610 /AB 1399

You may have seen the recent news about the reduction in uncompensated care in hospitals.  According to a report released last week, hospital uncompensated care costs will be $5.7 billion lower in 2014 — a 16% reduction.  This is due primarily to the reduction in the number of uninsured patients, which is the result of Medicaid expansion and subsidized coverage in the exchanges. The savings are largest in the states that have chosen to expand their Medicaid coverage.  In the Medicaid expansion states of which California is one calling it Medi Cal there is a 25% reduction in baseline uncompensated care spending.  In the non-expansion states, the reduction is 9%.   Hopefully this will have an effect on health insurance cost in the future.

Some bad news on the legislative front.

SB 610 which would have leveled the playing field for Franchisees in contract negotiations with Franchisors was vetoed by the Governor yesterday. He cited that the bill was polarizing and the standard of material and substantial was untested while the current standard of good faith has been well tested. Needless to say we disagree and will be considering doing something on this next session.

AB 1399. Which would have put in effect a California New Markets credit similar to the Federal governments. He said the cost of $200 million was significant. While we agree $200 million  is significant

there are offsets that could have been made.

Scott Hauge
President
Small Business California
2311 Taraval Street
San Francisco, CA  94116
shauge@cal-insure.com
415-680-2188