Tuolumne County Chamber of Commerce
Chamber News Newsletter
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Job Killer Update: Only Four Bills Pass to Second House Courtesy CalChamber
June 3rd was the deadline for bills to pass the house in which they were introduced. Only four job killer bills subject to the first house deadline have passed to the second house. The remaining four subject to the June 3 deadline were stopped or amended on the Assembly Floor. A fifth job killer bill, AB 2502 (Mullin; D-South San Francisco/Chiu; D-San Francisco), remains alive although it has not yet moved to the second house. The bill was granted a rule waiver by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (DLakewood) and therefore will return to the Assembly Local Government Committee. This action also exempts the bill from the June 3 house of origin deadline. Amendments to the bill are pending; CalChamber will continue to closely monitor this bill.
Job Killers Amended
June 2016
party not on the mortgage loan to interfere with appropriate foreclosures and creates a private right of action for violations of overly complex and burdensome requirements. To Assembly. SB 1318 (Wolk; D-Davis) Erodes Housing Affordability — Inappropriately leverages necessary affordable housing in order to solve infrastructure issues with the consequence that the housing won’t be built by imposing requirements on water or waste water districts to serve certain communities first. To Assembly. Increased Labor Costs
SB 1166 (Jackson; D-Santa Barbara) Imposes New Maternity and Paternity Leave Mandate — Unduly burdens and increases costs of small employers with as few as 10 employees, as well Prior to the June 1 amendments, AB 2748 as large employers with 50 or more employees, (Gatto; D-Glendale) eliminated incentives to by requiring 12 weeks of protected employee settle lawsuits and instead exposed businesses to leave for maternity or paternity leave, and multiple rounds of litigation at great expense to exposes all employers to the threat of costly In its current form, AB 2502 increases the cost the parties and the courts by creating statutory litigation. To Assembly. and reduces the supply of housing by authorizing prohibitions on “release” clauses in settlements local governments as a condition of development pertaining to “environmental disasters.” Meritless Litigation to impose a costly and inflexible price-controlled inclusionary housing requirement and, in doing The amendments made clarifications and SB 899 (Hueso; D-Logan Heights) Increased so, legislatively repeals an established court narrowed the bill to apply only to the Porter Meritless Litigation Costs — Drives up consumer decision upholding developers’ ability to set Ranch area gas leak or to contamination costs and increases frivolous litigation similar to initial rental rates for new dwelling units. surrounding the Exide Technologies facility, but the disability access lawsuits in California, by CalChamber remains opposed. prohibiting a retailer or grocery store from Job Killers Stopped discriminating against a person on the basis of Also amended on the Assembly Floor was AB gender with the price of goods and subjecting Arbitration Discrimination 2729 (Williams; D-Santa Barbara/ Thurmond; Dthem to a minimum $4,000 of damages for each Richmond), which would have jeopardized the AB 2667 (Thurmond; D-Richmond) Arbitration violation. To Assembly. production of California-based fuel supply and Agreements Discrimination — Unfairly increased costs to the industry by revising the discriminates against arbitration agreements definition of an idle well and requiring and therefore is likely preempted by the Federal permanent closure of 25% of California’s longArbitration Act, which will lead to confusion and term idle wells each year. litigation, by prohibiting arbitration of Unruh Civil Rights violations made as a condition of a The June 1 amendments establish a reasonable JULY MIXER contract for goods or services. Fell short of votes closure rate by requiring operators with 250 to needed to pass Assembly. 1,000 wells to close 5% of their long-term idle AT HURST RANCH wells each year until they have no more longAB 2879 (M. Stone; D-Scotts Valley) term idle wells. CalChamber has no position on Employment Arbitration Agreements AB 2729. Discrimination — Unfairly discriminates against MEMBER ORIENTATION arbitration agreements and is likely preempted Job Killers in Second House by the Federal Arbitration Act, which will lead to confusion and litigation, by prohibiting Moving on to the second house are the following an employer from requiring an individual who is CalChamber-opposed job killer bills: TRIP TO POMPEII & a member of the military to sign a mandatory arbitration agreement as a condition of Affordable Housing Barriers AMALFI COAST employment. Missed deadline to pass house in SB 1150 (Leno; D-San Francisco) Erodes which it was introduced. Housing Availability — Increases liability risk and the cost of residential loans by allowing a Two job killer bills, were amended on the Assembly Floor to remove the job killer tags.
July 21, 2016
July 25, 2016 at 9am
Departs, Oct. 20
MISSION - To provide leadership for a healthy and vibrant business environment and encourage responsible economic growth that respects Tuolumne County’s quality of life.
In 1989, a friend asked me to come to an Ambassador meeting with her and see if I liked it – I’m still here. The Ambassador group, as well as the entire Chamber, changes as the active members change. We have had wonderful, exciting, productive times and we have had bleak times, but we are still the best organization to represent business and economic growth, to support and promote “Shop Local,” and to give a unified political voice to elected officials. As an Ambassador, I have worked many golf tournaments – watching for a hole in one or closest to the hole, etc. At the present time, the Chamber is no longer having these events; however, I found them priceless. I discovered how leaders in our community responded to stress, levels of integrity, and creative language skills relating to a poorly hit ball. Another benefit of being an Ambassador is working with other Ambassadors at Mixers and special events. You have the opportunity to get to know if these folks are reliable, responsible, trustworthy and will do what they say they will do or if you know they will be/do something only if/when you see them. You learn whether or not you want to do business with them and/or refer others to them. I would love to elaborate on the benefits of being an active member of the Chamber, but there is limited space for this article. While there have been ups and downs in the life of the Chamber, we are survivors! I would like to invite you to actively participate and, with your help, raise the Chamber to one of its best “up” times. See you at the next Mixer!
New Federal Overtime Rules Effective December 1, 2016 Texas and Florida. Navigating the terrain between California and federal rules can be complicated. Employers must comply with the law that gives the most protection to the employee. Other key points from the final rule:
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced the highly anticipated federal overtime rule under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). According to the White House, an estimated 4.2 million white collar workers will become entitled to overtime pay when they work extra hours as a result of the new rule, and wages for workers will increase by $12 billion over the next 10 years. The final rule is effective December 1, 2016. The final rule changes the salary level that must be met before an employee can be exempt from overtime. The minimum salary threshold will increase to $913 per week, $47,476 annually, and will apply to nearly all employees — an employee paid less than this threshold amount will be guaranteed overtime pay. The new federal salary threshold of $47,476 is more than double the current federal threshold of $23,660. Importantly, it is also higher than California’s minimum annual salary threshold, which is currently $41,600. California employees must earn a minimum monthly salary of no less than two times the state minimum wage for full-time employment to qualify for the so-called “white collar” exemptions, in addition to meeting all other legal requirements for the exemption. This currently amounts to $3,466.67 per month or $41,600 a year based on the $10 an hour minimum wage. Under the final rule, more California employees potentially will be classified as nonexempt under the FLSA and entitled to overtime because they don’t meet the federal minimum salary threshold. A chart provided by the White House shows that California has the most workers potentially affected of any state — more than 392,000 affected workers. California’s share of the total number of workers affected nationwide is almost 10 percent. The next closest states are
The minimum salary threshold will now be automatically updated every three years — with the first automatic update occurring January 1, 2020. Based on projections of wage growth, the White House stated that the salary threshold is expected to rise to more than $51,000 with the first update. The final rule amends the salary basis test to allow employers to use nondiscretionary bonuses and incentive payments to satisfy up to 10 percent of the new salary threshold. California does not have any such provision. The rule sets the total annual compensation requirement for highly compensated employees (HCE) at $134,004 — up from $100,000; HCEs are exempt almost solely on their salary and are subject to a minimal duties test. There is no HCE exemption under California law. The DOL left the federal duties test alone. An employee must meet both the salary threshold and a “duties” test to be exempt from overtime. The DOL sought comments on whether adjustments to the duties test were necessary and whether the FLSA should move more toward California’s duties test. But the final rule left the FLSA duties test as-is. The announcement comes nearly two years after President Obama first directed the Secretary of Labor to begin creating new overtime rules. The DOL received nearly 300,000 comments on the contentious proposal. Employers will want to prepare for the December 1 deadline. Although there will likely be challenges to the new rules, it is unknown if any such challenges will succeed. Employers don’t want to get caught out of compliance. More information, including fact sheets, questions and answers, and small business information can be found on the DOL final overtime rule website.
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May Mixer hosted by Tuolumne County Association of Realtors
‘Val O.’ Ogletree of Tuolumne County Association of Realtors accepts the Mixer Host plaque from Chamber Board President, Teri Brockmire
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Advertise on the Union Democrat’s Chamber Page
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The Chamber’s monthly article appears in the Business Section of The Union Democrat on the fourth Wednesday of every month.
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Congratulations to all the Raffle prize winners at our May Mixer
Hosted By: TC Association of Realtors
Raffle Prize
Donated By
Winner
Host—Wine & Cheese Gift Basket 2 Tickets for Main Street Souvenirs Boom2 Waterproof Speaker Federal & State Required Notices Poster Apothic Wine & Glasses Bearfoot Summer Champagne & Glasses $40 Gift Certificate/$25 Free Slot Play Leatherhead Red Wine Oil Change and 2 Ball Caps Wicker Basket of French Soaps Insulated Tote Cooler Hovey Winery Rosato Wine One Month of Free Legal Protection Oil Change, Hat and Lanyard Pen Half of the Evening’s Raffle Proceeds
Tuolumne County Association of Realtors Berkshire Hathaway Home Services AT&T California & T. C. Chambers of Commerce Three B’s Event Planning 4th Dimensional Marketing & Consulting Black Oak Casino Resort Inner Sanctum Cellars Sonora Ford Susan Epperson, Coldwell Banker Segerstrom Jazz It Up Iron-On Sparklers Signal Service Legal Shield—Gat Slor Auto Tech & Tires Chamber Ambassadors & Our Guests
Teri Brockmire Jan Dyer Teri Brockmire Pam Mendiola Tamara Lund Pam Mendiola Nancy Gottschall Pam Mendiola Thomas Jefferson Anne Patel Valerie Stevens Tamara Lund Nancy Gottschall Karen Luckhardt Tamara Lund
Thank You To All Prize Donors and Everyone Who Attended