2011-2012 Legislative Session Coming to and End

August is the final month of the 2011- 2012 Legislative Session. Final adjournment of the two year session is on August 31, 2012. Several key issues impacting the food processing industry will be decided in these final weeks. The end of session always promises political maneuvering with last minute proposals springing to life with a total disregard for a formal public hearing process.

CLFP has been engaged on many legislative measures this session that are still "alive" and moving through the process. These measures include labor and workplace bills, regulatory reform bills, AB 32 cap-and-trade Program bills, energy bills, and water board bills. CLFP’s high priority bills are listed below.

Most of the bills that CLFP is working on will be considered by the Assembly and Senate Appropriations Committees before moving to their respective floors. CLFP staff will be working hard to hold the bills that the League opposes on the Senate and Assembly Appropriations Suspense Files, thus preventing them from moving to the floor for a vote. For those bills that do move out of the Appropriations Committees, CLFP staff will be working with other organizations to lobby against them before they come up for a vote on the Senate and Assembly Floors.

In addition to working on the existing high priority bills, there will undoubtedly be several measures that are introduced in the last remaining weeks, days and hours of the legislative session. These measures are commonly referred to as "gut and amend" bills, where the existing content of a bill is deleted – essentially "gutted" and then replaced with brand new language on a completely different subject matter. This is often done on highly controversial issues as a tactic to avoid the public review process. It is a constant chore for staff to keep up with these bills, assess their impact on the industry and work to lobby for or against them.

Needless to say, CLFP staff will be spending countless hours at the State Capitol over the next several weeks working to defeat legislation that will place burdensome and costly mandates on the food processing industry and supporting measures that will contribute to a healthier and more vibrant economic climate in California.

CLFP LEGISLATIVE PRIORITY LEGISLATION
AUGUST, 2012

Bill	Description	Position	Staff Contact
AB 723 (Bradford) Energy: public goods charge	Extends a tax, commonly referred to as the Public Goods Charge, on electricity ratepayers in the investor-owned utility territories an additional eight years.	Oppose	John Larrea
AB 1186 (Skinner) - California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006: investor-owned utilities: school energy efficiency.	Increases energy costs on consumers and businesses by allocating funds that should be used to mitigate ratepayer impact from the state’s cap-and-trade program to fund unnecessary and duplicative energy efficiency programs.	Oppose	John Larrea
AB 1313 (Allen) - Overtime for agricultural workers	Drives up food costs to consumers by removing the existing overtime exemption allowed for agricultural employers.	Oppose	Allyson Rathkamp
AB 1450 (Allen) - Employment Discrimination: status as unemployed	Prevents employers from legitimately inquiring into an applicant's employment history, out of fear of being charged with discrimination.	Oppose	Allyson Rathkamp
AB 1532 (J. Perez) California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006: Greenhouse Gas Reduction Account	Attempts to seize control of the AB 32 cap-and-trade auction funds from the sale of allocations for disbursement. (See SB 1572 (Pavley)). This bill already picks winners and losers for receipt of the auction funds.	Oppose	John Larrea
AB 1999 (Brownley) - Familial status protection	Increases the burden on California employers to conduct business and exposes them to a higher risk of litigation by expanding the Fair Employment and Housing Act to include a protected classification for a "family caregiver," or a "perceived family caregiver."	Oppose	Allyson Rathkamp
AB 2099 (Cedillo) - Employment: wage and hour violations	Increases the statutory fine for employers and any supervisor or employee of the employer that "neglects" to comply with the Labor Code or Industrial Welfare Commission Orders.	Oppose	Allyson Rathkamp
AB 2346 (Butler) - Agricultural employee safety: heat-related illness	Could increase the price of food by creating excessive, unnecessary new rules regarding heat illness prevention with unreasonable consequences for violations.	Oppose	Trudi Hughes Allyson Rathkamp
SB 535 (De Leon) California Communities Healthy Air Revitalization Trust	Increases energy costs, including fuel prices, on consumers and businesses by allocating funds from an illegal tax to various programs that are not necessary to cost-effectively implement the market-based trading mechanism under AB 32.	Oppose	John Larrea
SB 965 (Wright) Administrative Procedures Act: State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) and California regional water quality control boards	Provides a long-overdue reform of the SWRCB regional water quality control boards to remove the void left in the communication process by the current ex-parte interpretation that prevents water board leaders from learning firsthand about industry issues. As amended, this bill now follows an onerous PUC model for ex parte communications. We are asking for the bill to amended to its original form.	Support if amended	Trudi Hughes
SB 1018 (Budget Bill) Clean-up Effort	Industry coalition seeking modifications to recently enacted SB 1018. As enacted the bill fails to expressly provide mitigation costs to all electricity customers who will bear the responsibility of paying for the program beginning January 1, 2013.	Support pending clean-up language	John Larrea
SB 1099 (Wright) Regulations	Creates more predictability and certainty for businesses by requiring that all regulations filed with the Secretary of State become effective on either January 1 or July 1. It also requires that the Office of Administrative Law to post on its website links to the text of all enacted regulations.	Support	Trudi Hughes
SB 1572 (Pavley) California Global Warming Reduction Act of 2006: Greenhouse Gas Reduction Account	This bill is similar to AB 1532 in establishing the GHG Reduction Account however, this bill requires the Governor to draw up an expenditure plan for the auction funds. It also provides for CARB to consider other rules or regulations for achieving the 1990 reduction goal should the cap-and-trade be discontinued.	Oppose	John Larrea

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CALIFORNIA LEAGUE OF FOOD PROCESSORS
2485 Natomas Park Dr., Suite 550
Sacramento, CA 95833
Phone: (916) 640-8150
Fax: (916) 640-8156
www.clfp.com