California Affordability Agenda

Over the years I have written about major state legislation impacting businesses and the economy using the California Chamber of Commerce’s (CalChamber) list of Job Killers Bills as a guide.

Now that 2025 has arrived, the State Legislature is back in session with thousands of new pieces of legislation being introduced. CalChamber has retired the “Job Killer” term and rebranded its legislative efforts as an Affordability Agenda stating that the new title reflects the Chamber’s commitment to ‘good jobs, affordable living’

“California businesses and consumers alike are focused on the affordability of everyday life,” said CalChamber President and CEO Jennifer Barrera. “While the Job Killer list has served us well for more than 25 years, it has become clear that CalChamber’s focus must no longer be limited to legislation that just impacts jobs. Businesses and everyday Californians are struggling to keep up and going forward, our policy positions will include a focus not only on jobs, but also legislation that is adding unnecessary costs and mandates on businesses that will ultimately lead to higher prices for consumers and further increase the cost of living in California.”

As CalChamber looks to not only oppose legislation that will drive higher costs and limit job creation, this year’s list also includes policies that promote well-paying jobs and improve affordability for all Californians.

CalChamber’s list will include two categories moving forward: Cost Cutters for legislation that reduces costs for Californians and Cost Driverswhich will increase costs for small businesses and consumers.

I have listed below some of the Cost Cutter and Cost Drivers bill below which are currently working through the California Legislature.

COST CUTTERS

• AB 1138 (Zbur; D-Hollywood) and SB 630 (Allen; D-Santa Monica) Film Tax Credit: More than doubles the State’s Film Tax Credit to $750 million annually that will help to grow and retain jobs in one of California’s signature industries, and ultimately strengthening the economy. AB 1138 passed Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee and is in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. SB 630 passed Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee on April 23 and is in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

• AB 1308 (Hoover; R-Folsom) Expedites Entitlement Process for Housing Construction: Requires the building department to provide an applicant of a residential building permit with an estimated timeframe in which the inspection of the permitted work will be completed, upon receiving a notice of the completion of the permitted work, to reduce costs and ultimately housing prices. Passed Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on April 30 and is in the Assembly Appropriations.

• AB 941 (Zbur; D-Hollywood) CEQA Reform for Electricity Infrastructure Projects: Reduces the time for electricity infrastructure projects to go through permitting, which will allow for projects to be built faster. Regulatory certainty will allow for a reduction in energy costs. Passed Assembly Natural Resources Committee on April 21 and is in the Assembly Appropriations.

• AB 609 (Wicks; D-Oakland) CEQA Reform for Infill Projects: Will help to reduce the cost of housing, by reforming the permitting process for infill housing, which will allow for the state to build more housing and drive down prices. Passed Assembly Housing and Community Development on April 30 and is in Assembly Appropriations Committee.

• AB 417 (Carrillo; D-Palmdale) Enhanced Infrastructure Financing Districts: Improves the ability for local governments to build critical infrastructure and provide financing for economic development in targeted districts within their jurisdiction. It will allow economic development projects to receive additional financing, which incentivizes businesses to invest and create more jobs. Passed the Assembly on April 1 and is in the Senate Rules Committee awaiting assignment to a policy committee.

• SB 607 (Wiener; D-San Francisco) CEQA Reform for Infill Projects: Exempts certain housing rezoning projects from CEQA and improves current CEQA exemptions to make them easier to use for housing projects. Increased housing stock will lead to a reduction in the cost to buy or rent a house. Passed Senate Local Government Committee on April 30. Awaits action in Senate Appropriations Commttee.

COST DRIVERS

• SB 632 (Arreguín; D-Berkeley) Expands Costly Presumption of Injury. Significantly increases workers’ compensation costs for public and private hospitals by presuming certain diseases and injuries are caused by the workplace and establishes an extremely concerning precedent for expanding presumptions into the private sector. This proposal has been tried numerous times in previous legislative sessions. In Senate Appropriations Committee Suspense File.

• AB 405 (Addis; D-Morro Bay) New Climate Disclosure Requirements. Imposes costly, duplicative, and misaligned regulatory requirements on apparel companies that will increase clothing prices and worsen affordability for Californians, all without delivering meaningful improvements to global supply chain practices. Expands existing disclosure rules under SB 253 (2023), for which rulemaking hasn’t even begun yet. Passed Assembly Natural Resources on April 28 and is in Assembly Appropriations Committee.

• SB 7 (McNerney; D-Pleasanton) Restricts Use of Automated Decision Systems in Employment. Imposes impractical requirements on employers of every size related to automated decision systems, which will discourage the use of such tools and subject employers to costly litigation and onerous new compliance procedures, thereby driving up costs and ultimately impacting consumer prices. Passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 28 and will be heard in Senate Appropriations Committee on May 19.
• SB 464 (Smallwood-Cuevas; D-Los Angeles) Publication of Pay Data. Encourages litigation against employers based on the publication of broad, unreliable data collected by the state, which will unnecessarily drive up costs. Passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 30 and will be heard in Senate Appropriations Committee on May 19.
• SB 601 (Allen; D-Santa Monica) Punitive and Onerous Water Quality Permitting Requirements. Creates duplicative permitting obligations and dramatic legal liability requirements for businesses, agriculture, and water and wastewater utilities by granting the water boards broad authority to impose permitting requirements without considering economic impacts or the critical need for housing and recycled water projects. Passed Senate Judiciary Committee on April 29 and will be heard in Senate Appropriations Committee on May 19.
• SB 766 (Allen; D-Santa Monica) Legal Liability for Car Dealers. Dramatically increases legal liability to car dealers leading to a flood of new lawsuits and increased costs for buying or leasing cars for consumers. Passed Senate Judiciary Committee April 29 and will be heard in Senate Appropriations Committee on May 19.

• SB 682 (Allen; D-Santa Monica) De Facto PFAS Ban. Creates a de facto ban on the use of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in all commercial and consumer products, unless Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) is petitioned and makes an affirmative determination that the PFAS in a particular product is an unavoidable use. Because of the breadth and scope of PFAS use, including in aerospace, lithium-ion batteries, medical devices, automotive and semiconductors, to name a few, the regulatory program established is unworkable and ultimately will lead to a ban on critically important products or otherwise make certain products less safe, and ultimately drive up prices for consumers. Passed Senate Health Committee on April 30 and will be heard in Senate Appropriations Committee on May 19.

• AB 1221 (Bryan; D-Los Angeles) Restricts Use of Data in Employment. Imposes impractical requirements on employers of every size relating to any worker data collected by a workplace surveillance tool, which is defined so broadly that it would impact everything from security footage to emails. These requirements will drive up costs and impact consumer prices. Passed Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee on May 1 and Assembly Appropriations and held in Suspense File on May 14.

You can continue to monitor these Cost Cutters and Cost Drivers bills throughout this year by going to the CalChamber’s website calchamber.com. We will see if this new approach to advocacy is as effective as the previous Job Killers was.