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Tuesday, May 17, 2022CEQA Expansion Would Make Housing Harder to Build
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Building Industry Association and the organizations listed respectfully OPPOSE AB 1001, as amended, which CalChamber has labeled a Job Killer and CBIA has marked a Housing Killer. The bill proposes to expand the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to further exacerbate known problems with the statute by limiting local land use discretion and imposing burdensome and unworkable new legal obligations on
Thursday, May 05, 2022Chamber Expands Efforts to Connect with Hispanic Businesses
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber strives to be a catalyst, convener and champion for all local businesses in the Santa Maria Valley. Recently, the organization has begun a targeted effort to better assist Hispanic businesses in the local community. “We recognize that a large portion of the business community is Hispanic, and we want to make sure our organization is providing the tools and resources they need to remain successful in Santa Maria,” explained Glenn Morris, President/CEO for the Santa Maria
Thursday, April 28, 2022Chambers Oppose Effort to Force Unnecessary Disclosure of Employment Data
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with the California Chamber of Commerce and other organizations to respectfully OPPOSE AB 2095 and label it as a Job Killer bill. AB 2095 forces employers to publicly disclose information regarding labor and employment issues for employees across the entire company. That information will unfairly be used to label employers as “high road” or “low road” and subject them to a loss of state opportunities and incentives, and to frivolous litigation. This measure is a
Wednesday, April 27, 2022Chambers Oppose Efforts to Impose Additional, Unworkable Privacy Mandates
he Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with the California Chamber of Commerce and other organizations to respectfully OPPOSE AB 1651 and label it as a Job Killer bill. AB 1651 imposes overly broad requirements on both public and private employers of all sizes, contains unworkable mandates that would in fact invade worker privacy and chill new technologies, and buries employers and employees alike in vast amounts of red tape, and ignores contradictory mandates already in the law. The bill’s punitive
Thursday, April 21, 2022Chambers Oppose Effort to Mandate Different Workers Comp Rates Based Solely on Gender
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with the California Chamber of Commerce and other organizations to respectfully OPPOSE SB 1458. SB 1458 is likely unconstitutional, undermines the workers’ compensation system, and conflicts with existing law.SB 1458 Likely Violates Both the California and Federal Constitutions While Section 4 of Article XIV of the California Constitution “grants to the Legislature ‘plenary power, unlimited by any provision of this Constitution to establish and enforce a complete
Thursday, April 14, 2022Chamber Coalition Supports Proposal to Address Shortfall in State’s Unemployment Insurance Fund
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with the California Chamber of Commerce and other organizations to support AB 2570 as amended on March 24, 2022, because it would help address California’s looming unemployment insurance fund (“UI Fund) insolvency and reduce future tax increases for California’s struggling businesses. AB 2570 takes a strong step to address this unfairness by providing $7.25 billion for California’s UI Fund. This infusion will make a significant reduction in California’s present
Thursday, April 14, 2022Chambers Oppose Effort to Eliminate Ag Workers’ Voting Rights
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with the California Chamber of Commerce and other organizations to respectfully OPPOSE AB 2183 and label it as a Job Killer bill. Months after AB 616 (Stone) was vetoed by Governor Newsom, this bill seeks to eliminate an agricultural employee’s democratic right to cast an independent vote in a secret ballot election regarding whether to unionize, making them susceptible to coercion and misinformation. The bill also creates an unfair retaliation presumption against
Tuesday, April 12, 2022Chamber Coalition Supports Proposed Legislation to Improve Disability Access and Reduce Frivolous Litigation
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with the California Chamber of Commerce and other organizations to support AB 2164 which will benefit both small businesses and customers by providing financial assistance to ensure facilities are accessible and will protect small businesses from frivolous litigation. For years, small businesses have been targeted by bad actors who repeatedly file accessibility related lawsuits against businesses for technical violations. This has continued during the pandemic and
Tuesday, April 12, 2022Chamber Coalition Pushes Back Against Discriminatory Workers’ Comp Proposal
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with the California Chamber of Commerce and other organizations to respectfully OPPOSE SB 1458 is likely unconstitutional, undermines the workers’ compensation system, and conflicts with existing law.SB 1458 Likely Violates Both the California and Federal ConstitutionsWhile Section 4 of Article XIV of the California Constitution “grants to the Legislature ‘plenary power, unlimited by any provision of this Constitution to establish and enforce a complete system of
Monday, April 11, 2022Chamber Joins Coalition Opposing Additional Taxes
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered The California Taxpayers Association and other organizations to respectfully oppose AB 2289 and ACA 8, which together seek to impose a wealth tax – the first of its kind in the United States. ACA 8 would amend the California Constitution to allow the Legislature to tax tangible personal property, including stocks, bonds, investments, household furnishings, and other personal effects. AB 2289 would impose a tax of 1.5 percent on taxpayers with a worldwide net worth in
Monday, April 04, 2022Chamber Coalition Pushes Back Against Proposal to Allow Employees to Skip Work Unnecessarily
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with the California Chamber of Commerce and other organizations to respectfully OPPOSE SB 1044 and label it as a Job Killer bill. If SB 1044 were in effect right now, any employed Californian could refuse to show up to work today, regardless of the health and safety precautions taken by their employers. The breadth of the bill would cripple emergency response, ignores existing protections, and undermines Cal/OSHA’s current health and safety procedures.The letter
Tuesday, March 29, 2022Chamber Coalition Opposes Creation of New Protected Class
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with the California Chamber of Commerce and other organizations to respectfully OPPOSE AB 2182 and label it as a Job Killer bill. AB 2182 imposes a burdensome new accommodation requirement on small businesses to provide employees with time off any time school or a care center is unavailable. The Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) applies to employers with five or more employees and includes a costly private right of action, exposing small employers to costly
Tuesday, March 29, 2022Chamber Joins Coalition to Oppose Bill that Seeks to Shame Employers
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with the California Chamber of Commerce and other organizations to respectfully OPPOSE AB 2095 and label it as a Job Killer bill. AB 2095 forces employers to publicly disclose information regarding labor and employment issues for employees across the entire company. That information will unfairly be used to label employers as “high road” or “low road” and subject them to a loss of state opportunities and incentives, and to frivolous litigation. This measure is a
Tuesday, March 22, 2022Chamber Coalition Opposes Legislation that would Encourage Absenteeism
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with the California Chamber of Commerce and other organizations to respectfully OPPOSE SB 1044. If SB 1044 were in effect right now, any employed Californian could refuse to show up to work today, regardless of the health and safety precautions taken by their employers. The breadth of the bill would cripple emergency response, ignores existing protections, and undermines Cal/OSHA’s existing health and safety procedures. The letter written in opposition of SB 1044
Wednesday, March 16, 2022Chamber Coalition Pushes Back on “No Show” Legislation
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with the California Chamber of Commerce and other organizations to respectfully OPPOSE SB 1044. Under SB 1044, we feel any Californian could refuse to show up to work today, regardless of the health and safety precautions taken by their employers. The breadth of the bill would cripple emergency response, ignores existing protections, and undermines Cal/OSHA’s existing health and safety procedures.The letter written in opposition of SB 1044 may be found here.
Thursday, March 10, 2022Legislative Session Off to a Fast Start
Ben Golombek, Executive Vice President, CalChamber Both houses of the State Legislature recently wrapped up their work on 2-year bills that had a January 31st deadline to pass their house of origin. The Chamber Advocacy team was focused on a number of significant bills that would impact both our members as well as the larger California economy. Through a lot of hard work and collaboration we were incredibly successful ahead of this legislative deadline, and I wanted to outline some of our recent
Monday, March 07, 2022Chamber Coalition Supports Flexible Work Schedules.
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with the California Chamber of Commerce and other organizations to support AB 1761. AB 1761 would provide employees more flexibility because the employee could request an alternative workweek schedule on an individualized basis. It would also relieve employers the administrative cost and burden of adopting an alternative workweek schedule per division. Pursuant to AB 1761, at the request of the employee, an employer would be able to implement a flexible work schedule
Monday, February 07, 2022Chamber Supports Restoration of Important Business Incentives
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with the California Chamber of Commerce and other organizations to support AB 87 (Assembly Committee on Budget) and SB 113 (Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review), both as amended on February 2, 2022. Specifically, we support the 2022-23 State Budget restoring the net operating loss (NOL) deduction and business incentive tax credits that were suspended and capped in the 2020-21 budget via AB 85 (Chapter 8, Statutes of 2020). Sunsetting the last year of the
Thursday, January 27, 2022Chamber Supports Governor’s Proposal to Pay Down Unemployment Insurance Fund Debt
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with the California Chamber of Commerce and other organizations to SUPPORT Governor Newsom’s budget proposal regarding the outstanding unemployment insurance (UI) loan from the federal government. We are glad that the Governor has proposed to pay $3 billion towards this outstanding UI debt. This payment would cover the State’s responsibility for distributing fraudulent payments as well as a small but meaningful portion of the outstanding $19.7 billion insolvency. The
Thursday, January 27, 2022Chamber Joins 100-plus Organizations in Opposing AB1400 and ACA11
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with the California Chamber of Commerce and other organizations are OPPOSED to AB 1400 (Kalra, Lee, and Santiago) as amended on January 24, 2022, and ACA 11 (Kalra and Lee) as introduced on January 5, 2022, as JOB KILLERS, as the bills would create a new and exorbitantly expensive government bureaucracy, which would control and finance a state-run health care system (CalCare), ultimately resulting in significant job loss to California. Similar proposals in the past
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Monday, January 03, 2022SCO/City of Santa Maria Small Biz Webinar (January 12, 2022)
Free Small Business Webinar! Hosted by: State Controller Betty T. Yee and the City of Santa Maria Hear from federal, state, and local agencies about programs available to small businesses. January 12, 2022 10:00 - 11:30 am Register at: bit.ly/3sfa9O1
Monday, December 06, 2021New 2022 California Employment Laws White Paper Available to Download
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to be a primary focus in 2021, the California Legislature crafted and sent several hundred bills to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk. As 2021 winds to a close, what better way to prepare for 2022 than by familiarizing yourself with employment law changes happening when January hits? For instance, a new law builds on 2020’s changes to the California Family Rights Act (CFRA), clarifying that employees can take CFRA leave to care for parents-in-law with serious health
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Tuesday, November 30, 2021Santa Maria Valley Chamber Issues Scorecard on Legislation
Tracking and advocating on issues before the state legislature is an important role of the Chamber of Commerce. Guided by principles recommended by the Chamber's Business/Government Roundtable, the Chamber works with our advocacy partners and coalitions to share the potential impacts (for good or ill) of proposed legislation and encourages our elected representatives to vote accordingly. Recognizing that we won't always be in perfect agreement, we think it's important to acknowledge our representatives
Wednesday, October 20, 2021Community Broadband Needs Assessment: Entities
For the past few years, EconAlliance has served as Santa Barbara County liaison to the tri-county Broadband Consortium Pacific Coast (Consortium), working cooperatively with the Consortium first to enhance broadband in Northern Santa Barbara County. In early 2020, EconAlliance conceptualized the “Northern Santa Barbara County Fiber Ring” and has since been actively seeking funding to accelerate development of the Fiber Ring. Part of this effort involves building awareness of grant and other funding
Friday, October 01, 2021CalChamber: Added Burdens for Hard-Hit Hospitality Industry Vetoed
Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed legislation opposed by the California Chamber of Commerce that would have imposed additional burdens and costs on the lodging industry. The vetoed bill, AB 1074 (Lorena Gonzalez; D-San Diego), had the potential to cause further harm to the hospitality industry by forcing a new service provider for a hotel to hire the previous contracted provider’s employees and navigate statutory barriers erected around operational positions, staffing redundancies, technical abilities,
Tuesday, September 21, 2021COVID-19 Business Impact Survey: September 2021
Between a historic gubernatorial recall election, county-wide mask mandates and back to school season, the past three months since our statewide reopening has been busy to say the least. We want to know how your business is maneuvering the newest phase of this pandemic and how we can best serve your needs. Please take a few minutes (average is 4) to fill out thissurveybefore it closes Monday, October 4 at midnight. The Central Coast Coalition of Chambers has committed to send out bi-monthly
Monday, September 13, 2021Chamber Joins Coalition Requesting Governor’s Veto On AB 616
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with the California Chamber of Commerce and other organizations to respectfully REQUEST your VETO AB 616 (Stone), which has been labeled as a JOB KILLER. This bill seeks to eliminate an agricultural employee’s democratic right to cast an independent vote in a secret ballot election regarding whether to unionize, making them susceptible to coercion and misinformation. The bill also creates an unfair retaliation presumption against employers and imposes an unrealistic
Tuesday, September 07, 2021Santa Maria Valley Chamber Opposes AB 1074
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with the California Hotel & Lodging Association (CHLA) and other organizations to oppose AB 1074 as it is an unprecedented expansion of current law with the potential to further harm the already decimated lodging industry. Hotels are significant enterprises which require a number ofspecialized services provided by companies that tailor to tailor to their particular needs. Changing contractors is not a proposition hotels take lightly, as the change can be an
Thursday, August 26, 2021Santa Maria Valley Chamber Opposes The Extension Of SB 95 (Skinner)
The Santa Maria Valley Chamber partnered with the California Chamber of Commerce and other organizations oppose any proposal for a blanket extension of SB 95 beyond the September 30, 2021 sunset date. The situation has changed significantly since SB 95 was enacted in March. Far fewer Californians were vaccinated, and many Californians had not yet had the opportunity to get vaccinated. Now, vaccines are free and widely available – but many Californians are choosing not to get them. This has led us to what
Monday, August 23, 2021Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant: New Funding Round to Open in September
New applicants for California’s Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant Program will be able to apply in the funding round opening on September 9 and continuing through September 30.The program provides grants of $5,000 to $25,000 to small businesses hurt by the pandemic. Businesses are eligible based on annual revenue as documented in their most recent tax return.New funding rounds were made possible by an additional $1.5 billion in funding authorized in a relief package signed by the Governor. Total
Thursday, July 15, 2021Participate in the County’s Citizens Independent Redistricting Commission Hearing
Wednesday, August 4 • 6:00 PM Join us in-person: Betteravia Hearing Room 511 East Lakeside Parkway Santa Maria, CA Join via Zoom:https://zoom.us/j/96627818457 or call (669) 900-6833 or (346) 248-7799 ID: 966 2781 8457 Spanish translation will be provided in-person at the hearing, if requested in advance and on Zoom The Commission is looking for input from community members and residents, particularly from the County of Santa Barbara’s Fifth District, on important communities of interest and
