2003 Cal-bred News

Bob Fox's Legislative Update

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Sept. 18, 2003) -- The Legislative session finally ended at 4 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 12, when the Assembly adjourned for the year.

The results for the California Thoroughbred Breeders Assocation were positive, but everyone would have benefited more if there had been significant Workers' comp reform.

AB 401, which allows the allocation of funds for selected out-of-state races, passed and is now waiting for action by the Governor. The CTBA has written a letter to Governor Davis requesting that he sign the bill. Other organizations are also supporting the bill, including State Fair and the CHRB.

AB 900, the industry's workers comp bill, wasn't heard because of an ongoing dispute between the Assembly Republicans and the Democrats in the Senate when a commitment on the budget wasn't kept. The Assembly Republicans refused to vote for any bill that required a two-thirds vote in order "to send a message." There were over 30 bills, authored by both Democrats and Republicans, that became two-year bills as a result of the dispute.

Assemblyman Kevin McCarthy, who will be the Republican leader in the Assembly when the legislature reconvenes in January, told us that he saw no reason why the bill couldn't be heard immediately upon the return of the members in January. It remains on the Assembly floor, could be passed in the first week or two of the session and be sent to the Governor for his signature. Since it is an urgency statute, it becomes effective upon the Governor's signature.

The workers' comp bills that were included in the Conference Committee report passed with the Democrats voting aye and the Republican not voting. They expressed a great deal of concern about the accuracy of the projected savings and were very disturbed that they weren't involved in the development of the language and in fact didn't even see it until it was presented at the hearing.

There is a great deal of disagreement about just how much will be saved by the legislation. Original estimates were that the savings would be between $3.5 billion and $5.5 billion, but other estimates are now questioning those figures.

SB 2 by Senator Burton, which mandates health care for employers with 20 or more employees, also passed and is now on the Governor's desk. Business organizations strongly opposed this bill and the Governor hasn't said what he plans to do with it.

The State Chamber of Commerce has said that whatever savings may be realized by workers comp premium reductions will now be spent on the mandatory health care required by SB 2.

A complete summary of the legislation that was monitored and lobbied by CTBA will be on the Legislative page of the web site in the next several days.