The 2017 California Legislative Session, which began last December 5, is officially “off to the races” now that the bill introduction deadline of February 17 has passed. This year, there was an almost 25% increase in the number of bill introductions compared to last year’s total, although there are historically more bills introduced in the […]

As the 2017 California Legislative Session gets underway, and with the newly-acquired super-majority status of Democrats in both the State Assembly and State Senate, the business community is concerned about potential tax increases brewing in the Legislature, despite the massive tax increases adopted by voters in early November. Similar to when Democrats captured their super-majority […]

California’s Legislature should give consideration to playing a greater role in regulations that are used to implement and interpret the statutes that the Assembly and Senate write. This would also be appropriate in light of their efforts to expand oversight of administrative agencies. The State of California has over 200 agencies, departments, boards, and commissions […]

Earlier this year, Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Senate Bill 3 by State Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco). The bill is now Chapter 4 and it amends Sections 245.5, 246 and 1182.12 of the Labor Code. As a result of the enactment of this bill, California’s minimum wage is going up on January 1, 2017 […]

California voters on November 8 passed Proposition 55, which is an initiative constitutional amendment which took effect on November 9. This ballot measure was the successful effort to extend the Prop. 30 highest marginal tax rates promoted by Governor Brown and others in 2012 as a “temporary tax” to help stabilize the state’s General Fund. […]

Arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution instead of litigation, has been under assault the past few years in California. The 2016 Legislative Session was not any different. As part of the 1,059 bills acted upon this year by Governor Jerry Brown, he signed one major arbitration bill and vetoed another. Two other significant arbitration […]