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to stay in business even when they can no longer afford to stay landlords, interferes with a family’s ability to move into their own property and creates an arbitrary 5-year restriction on an owner’s ability to move into their own property.
• Cal Chamber Oppose – Defeated: AB
1218 (McCarty; D-Sacramento): Would have imposed a “feebate” structure on manufacturers, which has the effect of increasing the cost of all vehicles in a manufacturer’s fleet, including the cost of light duty vehicles used by commercial and industrial businesses.
• Cal Chamber Oppose – Defeated: SB
582 (Stern; D-Canoga Park): Would have threatened substantial increases in the cost of goods and services of entities subject to cap-and-trade by doubling our 2030 carbon emissions reduction goals.
• Cal Chamber Oppose – Defeated:
SB 342 (Lena Gonzalez; D-Long Beach): Would have expanded board membership and imposed limitations on the types of appointees to the local air districts.
Legislature Passes 2 Job Killer, 1 Oppose Bill While we had a fantastic track record, a few bills that we opposed did manage to narrowly pass and will continue moving through the Legislative process, however there will be additional opportunities to work on these bills: • Job Killer: AB 1001 (Cristina Garcia; D-Los Angeles): Creates new highly subjective, non-quantifiable and litigation-bait standards in the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) that will threaten California’s economic recovery and ability to construct much-needed housing. It also removes local government discretion regarding how to analyze and mitigate proposed project impacts, thereby making projects more expensive, harder to build and more likely to be thrown into courts by NIMBY opposition.
• Job Killer: SB 213 (Cortese; D- San
Jose): 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.
• Oppose: AB 257 (Holden;
D-Pasadena): Undermines the existence of the franchise model by holding franchisors responsible for all conduct by individual franchisees. Establishes Fast Food Sector Council that would have unprecedented authority to write its own labor and employment laws for fast food restaurant employees, circumventing the California Legislature and other regulatory agencies’ position in establishing such laws.
The 2022 Legislative year is already underway with the initial deadline to introduce new bills coming this Friday, February 18th. The Chamber team will be working hard on the 1,000+ bills that will be introduced to ensure that the State’s economic recovery from COVID is not deterred. Original article appeared at CapitolInsider. CalChamber.com; Reprinted with permission.
Chamber & City Spotlight Successful Local Businesses The City of Santa Maria and the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce continued their featured business partnership in February, recognizing two additional local businesses during a City Council meeting on February 15. This program recognizes businesses who have been in the community for a significant amount of time, employ large numbers of local residents, and/or provide unique and significant contributions to the quality of life in the community. For 2022, the partnership is focusing on manufacturing and women owned businesses, selecting one business in each category to be highlighted each month. Featured businesses receive a certificate from the City Council and are highlighted by the City and Chamber in various publications and media outreach efforts. 2
Businesses featured in February were: Atlas Copco Mafi-Trench Company Atlas Copco Mafi-Trench provides worldleading, innovative industrial ideas and sustainable turbomachinery solutions for renewable energy production, liquefied natural gas, chemical and petrochemical processes and hydrogen processes. The company was formed in 1975 and arrived in Santa Maria in 1981 with 50 employees and now employs 216 employees. Atlas Copco buys many products and services locally and estimates they contribute >$10 million annually to the Santa Maria economy. The majority of their customers are international who visit Santa Maria for factory testing of the equipment. They are currently pursuing GREEN business certification from the California
Randy Dirlam, Project Management & Packaging Manager and Dena Malloy, Engineering Manager, Atlas Copco-Mafi Trench receive a proclamation from Councilmember Etta Waterfield. Green Business Network. Employees teach at Allan Hancock and Cal Poly and the business supports local high school tours and programs to encourage young people seeking a career in manufacturing. They
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