Business Owners Brace for Attack of ‘Job-Killers’

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He already had enough problems in this down economy. Now Nathan Sindel has more to worry about.

As co-owner of Mogul Manufacturing LLC, a San Fernando maker of cases and cabinets for film light sets and movie cameras, Sindel is concerned about several proposed laws making their way through the state Legislature, especially those raising workers?compensation costs or personal income taxes.

If any of these bills pass, they would impose new financial burdens on Mogul Manufacturing and companies like it, making it much harder for them to remain in Southern California.

?usiness is tough enough in the state as it is,?Sindel said. ?dding other burdens ?large or small ?severely impacts small business like ours. All options would be on the table, from cutting staff to cutting benefits to moving out of the state.?p>The company? workers?comp costs are already high, Sindel said, and any increase would put a further squeeze on the bottom line. Higher personal income tax would mean the LLC partners would have to pay more out of company earnings.

Company executives across the state share Sindel? concern over dozens of bills in Sacramento that threaten to increase the costs of doing business. The California Chamber of Commerce has launched a campaign to block 27 of these so-called ?ob-killer?bills in this year? legislative session. While that? down from 33 job-killer bills targeted last year, it? still too many for Sindel and others in these challenging times.

Most of the bills are retreads of similar ones that either never made it out of the Legislature last year or were vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. This year? selection includes a single-payer universal health care bill, an increase in benefit payouts to injured workers and a requirement to pay sick time.

?ust because these were stopped last year doesn? mean we can sit back and do nothing,?said Marc Burgat, vice president of government relations for the chamber. ?he economy has continued to get worse, so the threat these bills pose to businesses is even greater now.?p>Mark Waronek, who owns a Torrance public affairs consulting firm and sits on the board of the Torrance Area Chamber of Commerce, expects many of the bills to die quickly. He met with legislators on a recent trip to Sacramento and found them willing to listen to concerns about the impact the bills would have during the downturn.


Deficit problem

Most of the new bills on this year? job-killer list seek additional revenues or taxes, which is no surprise given that the Legislature is grappling with a budget deficit in excess of $20 billion.

Among these are three bills that would add $5 in state taxes for a pack of cigarettes if they all pass. The taxes would bring up to $4 billion in additional revenues to state coffers. Smokers today pay about $6 per pack, including 85 cents in state tax and $1 in federal tax. The addition of $5 in state taxes would nearly double the price.

Local tobacco products retailers said they would lose customers if the taxes pass.

?uch of our business would go down the drain if they raised the tax that high,?said Beto Cuellar, owner of the Pale Fire tobacco shop in Eagle Rock. ?hen they put that first 85 cent sales tax on, we saw our business fall as people who before bought three or four packs at a time would now only buy one pack.?p>Also on the job-killer list is an oil extraction tax ?an idea first floated at the ballot box a couple of years ago and then again in the budget debate this winter. This time, the exact amount of the tax on oil extracted from the ground in California has yet to be determined. The tax would be used to fund alternative energy courses to be taught in the University of California system. Intense opposition from the oil industry is expected.

The state chamber isn? just in opposition mode, though. It is promoting a series of bills that it considers ?ob creators.?One such bill would grant more flexibility in workweek and overtime schedules.

The chamber is also backing a bill that would require an analysis of the economic impact that every new regulation would have on small businesses.

The outlook for the job-creator bills is dicey, however. The chamber picked 15, but only seven are still in the running, including those mentioned above.

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