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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

When the Clock Strikes Midnight

The end of summer is one of my favorite times of year. To me, it represents a new school year for my kids, cooler weather and of course, the beginning of all the fun holidays. If you’re a political junkie, you would know that the end of summer also means the end of the legislative session for California legislators. Every year, the final week of August is filled with excitement and suspense as it culminates a year of advocacy, negotiations, and rallying of the troops in Sacramento. The 2020 end of session proved to be just as suspenseful as any other year, if not more, because of the challenges that arose due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pre-COVID, the California Legislature was already unique in the way it was structured and how it operated. California is one of only 10 states with a full-time legislature, they are far from business friendly and the Democrats have supermajorities in both the state Senate and Assembly. The heavy tilt on one side has impeded on the ability for compromise on many pieces of legislation that are introduced and moved through the process. During floor votes, you’ll typically see bills authored by Democrats receive aye votes from Democrats and receive no votes from Republicans, and vice versa. While I don’t enjoy talking about political parties, it has clearly impacted the ability for legislators at all levels to conduct business. In fact, the end of the 2020 legislative session in California was a disaster. And that’s putting it lightly. Let’s start at the beginning of the year. Thousands of bills were introduced at the start of 2020 and several bills were carried over from 2019. We saw bills related to housing and homelessness; bills related to independent contractors; bills related to energy and the environment, and bills related to elections. What we didn’t see at the beginning of 2020 were bills related to a public health crisis. At the local level, we saw the Los Angeles City Council and Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors swiftly respond to the impacts of COVID-19. While their policies were terrible for businesses and employers on the brink of shutting down permanently, their meetings and deliberations were not consumed with debates predicated solely on political ideology. How did the California Legislature respond to COVID-19? Well, they recessed indefinitely at the start of the Stay at Home orders without transitioning to virtual or remote meetings like most legislative bodies throughout California found themselves being able to do. When the legislature returned, some legislators unfortunately ended up contracting COVID-19, which resulted in another recess. While bills were eventually introduced in response to COVID-19, so much time was lost, and unfinished business was left on the table. Fast forward to August, legislators were scrambling to move bills forward, hearing hundreds of bills in a single day while also trying to navigate holding hearings remotely and voting virtually. Had they transitioned to virtual meetings sooner, more time could have been spent on deliberating bills and less time figuring out how to mute and unmute themselves. I fully understand the challenges presented by the new way of doing things virtually, but these challenges should not have been compounded by the feud between our Democratic and Republican state legislators. On the very last day of session, when several important pieces of legislation were on the file for debate, legislators spent several hours voicing their discontent with being shut out of the Capitol and being limited to how much time would be allotted for each bill. Once again, time was lost, and unfinished business was left on the table as the clock struck midnight on Sept. 1. Our legislators had an opportunity to move the needle on several important issues, especially as we continue to face the impacts of COVID-19. Despite the strong advocacy from groups like the Valley Industry and Commerce Association on key issues, it was not enough to get bills passed the finish line. Bills faced demise not because they didn’t get the votes, but simply because time ran out. If it was not clear to you before, it should be clear now – Californians deserve better. Stuart Waldman is president of the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, a business advocacy organization based in Van Nuys that represents employers in the San Fernando Valley at the local, state and federal levels of government.

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