Businesses’ Regulatory Burdens Aired

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Victor Valley business owners recited a laundry list of complaints against government rules and regulations Friday morning, telling lawmakers or their staff that state, county and city bureaucracies are breaking . … (Continued below) …

… From the Daily Press, Feb. 19, 2010 … ‘Local businesses hit the breaking point’, By David Keck, Special for the Daily Press … (Continued below) …

For about 90 minutes owners and representatives from local insurance companies, auto parts stores, pizza restaurants and other businesses repeated grievance after grievance, often using colorful examples to illustrate what they see as waste, duplicity and hidden taxes.

The mood sometimes sounded like a meeting of the rising Tea Party movement. The word “revolution” turned up more than once as speakers addressed Assemblyman Steve Knight, R-Palmdale, Drew Mercy, a field representative for Republican state Sen. George Runner, and Brad Mitzelfelt, San Bernardino County 1st District supervisor.

Runner had a scheduling conflict and could not attend, Mercy said.

The state legislators were at the Victorville City Council Chambers in the second of a series of town hall meetings around their districts to identify the regulations and taxes hurting businesses most. The first meeting was in Santa Clarita last month.

They knew their audience well. Part of a package distributed at the meeting included reports from Forbes magazine, The Tax Foundation and the Small Business and Entrepreneurial Council relegating California as one of the worst places in the nation to do business.

Topping the list of concerns for business owners were AB 32, the new state law mandating strict rules to combat climate change, California Air Resources Board regulations and workers’ compensation.

Others blasted overtime laws, state mandated rest and meal periods, and “frivolous” lawsuits and regulations that outlawed selling some products in California because they were deemed hazardous. County and city regulations and fees also took heat.
“We would like to open another restaurant,” said Freddy Rosales, owner of La Casita on the Lake restaurant in Victorville, summing up the comments of others. “But what stops us dead in our tracks is the cost of doing business.”

Knight conceded change would be difficult. But he promised business owners that he would work on their concerns. Meantime, he said, each one of them should be trying to affect change in Sacramento. That starts by changing out legislators who are unfriendly to business. Look at the California Chamber of Commerce report card on legislators, Knight told them. Unlike a variety of report cards issued by lobbyists and special-interest groups, the chamber’s assessment considers only how legislators voted on issues affecting business. “If they cannot score at least an 85 percent voting record approval (from the state Chamber of Commerce),” Knight said of legislators, “then you’d better not believe them. They are voting against you.”

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