As I travel around California visiting with our many small business members, these mom and pop employers have told me almost every story of lawsuit abuse imaginable: customers pretending to slip and fall in order to sue a business, lawsuits over the blue paint on a parking space being faded, businesses facing Prop. 65 lawsuits for not warning customers that alcohol is bad for them…the list goes on and on.
Gov. Jerry Brown on Saturday signed into law changes to Proposition 65, the state’s landmark anti-toxins law, that aim to reduce lawsuits and fines for businesses.
SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today signed 18 bills to strengthen the state’s business climate.
Today’s action builds on the legislation Governor Brown signed in July to revamp the state’s economic development program, known as the Governor’s Economic Development Initiative (AB 93 and SB 90). The Initiative, which received broad, bipartisan support in the Legislature, helps bolster California’s business climate and put Californians to work by establishing a statewide sales tax exemption on all manufacturing equipment and research and development equipment purchases for biotech and manufacturing companies; hiring credits for businesses in areas with the highest unemployment rate and poverty; and provides the opportunity for California businesses to compete for available tax credits based on the number of jobs to be created and retained, wages paid in those jobs and other factors.
SACRAMENTO – Moving to defend Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr.’s landmark package of pension reforms, the state of California today sued the U.S. Department of Labor for improperly denying federal grants to California public transit providers after it erroneously concluded that the pension reforms constrain workers’ collective bargaining rights.
“Bringing this lawsuit is just another step to ensure that our pension system is viable long into the future,” said Governor Brown.
Four measures, part of a package of 18 business-friendly bills approved Friday, seek to ease the regulatory burden on developers of smartphone-based payment systems; reverse a retroactive tax hike on investors in small start-up companies, and create a “Made in California” program to help market innovative, locally manufactured consumer products.
About two-thirds of Californians with assets of $1 million or more actually feel better off now than before the 2008 financial crisis, a report from BMO Private Bank said. And roughly the same portion say they expect the economy to continue its recovery in the next year.
The roads in greater Los Angeles are the most deteriorated in the United States, which costs Southern California drivers more than $800 a year, according to a national transportation analysis released Thursday.
New research from the Federal Reserve indicates the share of middle-skill jobs in the workforce has dropped from 25% in 1985 to just above 15% today, part of the hollowing-out effect that David Autor of MIT has documented. And as our chart above shows, middle-wage jobs — those that pay between $13.84 and $21.13 per hour, as defined by the National Employment Law Project — sustained much deeper cuts during the 2008-2009 recession than high- and low-wage jobs.
California will experience faster economic growth in 2014 and 2015, according to the latest projection from the Business Forecasting Center at the University of the Pacific. The Center forecasts real gross state product will grow 3.3% in 2014, and accelerate to 3.9% in 2015 as the housing recovery begins to fuel new construction and job growth. The nearly 4% growth rate in 2015 will be the highest California has experienced since 2005.
The American Community Survey (ACS) and the Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS) ask respondents age 1 year and over whether they lived in the same residence 1 year ago. For people who lived in a different residence, the location of their previous residence is collected. The state-to-state migration flows are created from tabulations of the current state (including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico) of residence crossed by state of residence 1 year ago. Tables of ACS state-to-state flows are available going back to the 2005 ACS – the first year of full implementation of the survey. People living in group quarters (e.g. adult correctional facilities, nursing facilities, college/university student housing, and military quarters) were added to the sample for the first time starting with the 2006 ACS.
A new analysis of the last decade of investment in California’s clean technology sector shows that although venture capitalists remain key players, different types of investors are becoming ever more important to the growth of the sector.
“Between August 27 and September 5, Hoover’s Golden State Poll (a joint collaboration of the Hoover Institution and the research firm YouGov) surveyed 1,000 Californians on their confidence in California’s recovery – their job security and pocketbook choices (last October, a Hoover/YouGov survey sampled Californians’ attitudes toward state government and policy choices in Sacramento). . . . Twice as many Californians reported being worse-off financially (33%) than better off (17%) over the last year. . . . Among survey respondents who are currently employed, more than half (55%) said they weren’t confident in their ability to find another job in California within 6 months that pays as much as they are making now.”
“Private-sector employment gains picked up slightly in September, as businesses added 166,000 jobs, according to a hiring report that has taken on more importance as a timely measure of the labor market amid the likely delay of the government’s monthly statistics.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expected the monthly report from payroll processor Automatic Data Processing Inc. ADP -0.19%and forecasting firm Moody’s Analytics to show an increase of 178,000 jobs. The August ADP employment increase was revised to 159,000 from 176,000 reported a month ago.”
“The economy in the city of Los Angeles grew at a faster rate than the nation last year, according to a report released by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce Wednesday.
The report, prepared by Beacon Economics, a Los Angeles economic consulting firm, said the city of Los Angeles had a 3.8 percent increase in payroll jobs to about 1.5 million jobs last year, the sharpest increase since 2005 and nearly double the national rate.
… But the job growth was most concentrated in four of the city’s 15 council districts: just north of downtown, the Westside, west of downtown and the southeastern San Fernando Valley. Eight council districts saw little job growth, while three council districts saw job losses.”
The rich and educated are more likely to marry, to marry each other, and to produce rich and educated children. But this virtual cycle turns vicious for the poor.