Lots of bills signed and vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger. Most of these do not have tax implications though a few do. Here goes:
SB 1244 was signed into law. This fixes a major conformity issue between federal and California law regarding LLC payroll (non)conformity. This is a huge win for California LLCs. One note of caution: Conformity under this measure starts on January 1, 2011; the bill is not retroactive.
AB 2418 was vetoed. We’re now into humor: The bill would have removed the apostrophe in the Contractors’ State License Law. Here’s Governor Schwarzenegger’s veto message:
To the Members of the California State Assembly: I am returning AB 2419 without my signature …
-Number of legislative committees that took time hearing this bill: 3
-Number of pages in this bill needed to remove an apostrophe: 184
-Taxpayer dollars used to pass this bill through the Legislature: $ thousands and thousands.
-The outrage the public should have that the Legislature is spending its time “working” on bills like this instead of focusing on California’s real problems: PRICELESS.
The massage industry is thrilled that the Governor vetoed a measure that would have mandated law enforcement members on the California Massage Therapy Council. I have to wonder why there’s a California Massage Therapy Council.
Lawmaker Receives Unfair Heat for Doing His Job
Lisa Miller-Strunk
Chair, Contractors State License Board
As a result of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s veto of Assembly Bill (AB) 2419, Assembly Member Paul Cook has taken a lot of unfair heat and mischaracterizations. The Contractors State License Board (CSLB) wants to set the record straight.
AB 2419 was initially drafted as a bill sponsored by CSLB to authorize the Registrar of Contractors to issue a stop work order to any unlicensed contractor who didn’t cover his or her employees with workers’ compensation insurance. CSLB asked Mr. Cook to carry the legislation because we knew he understood how important this would be for the protection of consumers and construction employees.
When the key provision was later inserted into another piece of legislation, CSLB asked Mr. Cook to amend his existing bill as an efficient vehicle for routine clean-up language—the correction of spelling, grammatical and other drafting errors, redundancies, and inconsistencies that had accumulated in California Construction Law for years.
The accurate portrayal is that clean-up bills move through the legislature with little or no opposition every year—they’re part of the legislative process. There’s even a state agency called the Legislative Counsel’s Office with responsibilities that include identifying these types of errors in law. The Legislative Counsel’s Office drafts all legislation introduced by the Legislature and has, along with the various policy committees, consistently encouraged clean-up of errors and inconsistencies in state codes. In six separate legislative votes, not one single vote opposed AB 2419.
It’s not a matter of addressing these changes on a whim; the changes have to be made—if not this year, then sometime in the future. AB 2419’s removal of the apostrophe in CSLB’s name was just one of the things done to make the law consistent; it was by no means the only thing.
In addition to setting the record straight about this bill, I publicly thank Mr. Cook for his unwavering support of CSLB and his tireless work to protect the consumers of his district and the state of California. Mr. Cook has always been a strong supporter of CSLB and all efforts to protect consumers. Over the past three years, CSLB has teamed with Mr. Cook’s office to conduct nine different outreach events in his district, including six Senior Scam Stopper℠ seminars and a rebuilding forum for victims of a 2008 wildfire in San Bernardino County—more than any other southern California state legislator.
CSLB is grateful that Assemblyman Paul Cook consistently demonstrates his professionalism, integrity, and willingness to take steps to improve our state, and thanks him for his vigor and hard work.